And once we're old enough to buy things for ourselves, asking strikes most of us as rather greedy. Also, people like surprises. In the context of a registry, that's going to go away. You already asked for it. Of course, when there's money to be made, someone's bound to find a way around these problems.
Users can choose from a pull-down menu of retailers or list the URLs of other stores they like.
Standing alone, wish lists seem greedy, but put in context, they're just part of the online conversation. Adults send e-mail greetings, but for important occasions they still send a regular card. So if online registries are, in fact, the future of gift giving, it may be because the next generation will just never grow up enough to consider them presumptuous. Retailers smell gold in what analysts have called an untapped gift market online, but their cashing in could have unanticipated social consquences. Gift-giving rituals are not as formalized in America as in, say, Asia, where people follow elaborate, symbolic protocols.