IM Meets Affiliate Mktg on London Tube

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As I've been traveling on the tube I've seen ads for this insidemessenger product.
I've finally remembered to check it out and it struck me as an interesting idea. Not necessarily great indea but interesting.
Basically you add their MSN IM ID to your friends list and you can search amazon.com and order items which eventually they add to a shopping cart which they give you the url to and then you can check out.
It seems to me so be some nice tech through IM which is just trying to make money through the amazon affiliate program.
From a user side I don't see this as being a great tool and don't know why I wouldn't just go to amazon.com.
From the business side I hate to think what the dev and tube advertising has cost.
Either way I'd suggest the cost per visitor is horrendous given their page counter was only at 4200 when I went.
But like my Uni lecture used to teach me, first movers don't always win - I'm expecting to see more of this but in a more useful product (flights/ dating/ comparison shopping) and then a better way to monetize the users.