Silly virtual “gifts” are becoming a thing of the past.

Anyone who's spent more than 15 minutes on Facebook knows that frivolous applications abound. There's good karma, cute animals encased in eggs, and squares of AstroTurf with animé-esque critters, among literally hundreds of others. Befuddling, yet strangely addictive, free applications have a seeming stranglehold on the market.

Even more baffling are the few apps that charge money. While $1 Facebook gifts were initially popular, it's easy to see how an app's shelf life could be limited. With the glut of similar—and free—applications, like "Hatching Eggs" and "Send Cupcakes," users have little motivation to pay a dollar for a colorful icon. To make real money, it seems, someone has to offer a real product, which is at least theoretically challenging in a virtual space. Enter Adam Ludwig, co-founder of Give Real, a program that lets users gift one another drinks—real drinks. Driven by a desire to "tie your online life to your offline experiences," Ludwig and co-founder Patrick Ledbetter launched their site in November 2008 with a Facebook-intensive marketing initiative.

"When you give your friend a real drink, you're encouraging them to take some time off Facebook and go out to a bar!" their Facebook page implores. Their concept is simple: to allow users to "gift" a dollar amount to their friends (the standard value listed on the site is $10) while bypassing common headaches associated with gift certificates. Instead of sending a physical gift receipt, the program automatically attributes the value to the recipient's credit card (after they've given the company all their credit-card information); the system has raised some eyebrows, but Ludwig insists that is safe and confidential. While users can redeem their gift only at restaurants and bars that accept credit cards, they aren't limited to a list of participating members. Best of all, users aren't charged a premium to use the service.

The site's drink selector is a bit of a misnomer, since you can use the gifted money to purchase whatever you want. But gifting your friend a dirty martini at the end of a tough week feels oddly satisfying even if you know she'll likely spend the money on "venti" red-eye coffees.

Most unusual about Give Real is that it bypasses restaurant and bar commercial interaction altogether. While this might mean missing out on co-sponsorship opportunities, Ludwig believes this move only streamlines their business. "It would take an entire sales effort to get even a fraction of the companies to opt in," said Ludwig, who noted that there are more than 500,000 bars and restaurants in the United States.

Matt Smith knows this effort all too well. The co-founder of a rival group, BarTab, Smith and co-founder Nick Stewart work closely with bars, following a text-message-gift-certificate program.