Facebook adds food ordering so you never have to leave

The Facebook additions are coming fast and furious these days, with possible Instagram notifications, a revamped Marketplace, and a new visual style for comments. TechCrunch reports that the latest feature, rolling out to select users today, brings online food ordering into the social network app and website. Now you can order your favorite takeout from the restaurant up the street without leaving the safe confines of the social network.

You can find the hamburger-styled light blue "Order Food" icon in the Facebook app's menu area, or a somewhat more realistic-looking hamburger in your sidebar on the Facebook website. According to TechCrunch, the system is powered with Delivery.com and Slice, an enhancement of an earlier feature that let you order directly from a restaurant's Facebook page. We've confirmed the new feature in our own web browser and mobile app.

When you tap through to the new food ordering icon on Facebook, you'll see a list of restaurants in your area that use the service. A tap on the restaurant's image will take you to its Facebook page, or you can just hit Start Order to get directly to the menu. There's a spot to enter your address to ensure the place can deliver to you or tell it that you'll pick up your order. The interface for ordering seemed fairly straightforward for the restaurants we tried it out with, too.

All in all, ordering food directly from within Facebook could make it more convenient for users who don't want to figure out which restaurants in their local area have online ordering. Users won't have to navigate to an eatery's Facebook page anymore, either. Facebook gets to keep its users in its own walled garden, too, which is probably good for their business, as well. We've reached out to Facebook to find out when this new feature will roll out to all users and will update the article when we hear more.