Wednesday, June 27, 2012


Facebook Brings More features to The “Like” Button

Facebook is all set to change the way users share content and links using the “Like” and “Share” buttons. The sharing functionality of Facebook’s like button has been slightly overhauled which might trigger a retiring door for Facebook’s share button.

Before this update, the “Like” button was kind of a recommendation while the share button was “Sharing” in it’s true sense. Liking a webpage would post a mini update on your Facebook profile while sharing a webpage would bring additional details e.g thumbnails, excerpt, personal comments and so on.

The newer update rolled by Facebook changes how the “Liked” story is shared on your Facebook profile or news feed. Unlike before, a thumbnail and excerpt is returned, an example is shown below:


The next major update is that now users can “Like” updates within a Facebook application. You can “Like” and share content or updates from an application which your friend is using, hence expect some heavyweight Facebook liking cluttering up your News feed, “Mr X likes your daily horoscope” and stuff like that.

Why Facebook’s Share Button Shouldn’t Retire

There is a major difference between Facebook’s share and like buttons. It’s “personal commentary”.

When you are sharing a webpage using the “Share” button, you have the ability to add a personal note or comment to the update. Whether you hate the page, whether it’s funny, you can express it. But such is not the case with Facebook’s like button. The moment you hit “Like” it’s dumped to your profile, no second chance at all.


You can always post a comment to the “Liked” story and express your views but this is kind of boring for two reasons. First, you have to open your Facebook profile and then comment on the “Liked” link. Second, your close friends might get annoyed when you keep liking and commenting on the same link over and over again.

For Facebook, The Like Button Makes More Sense

But if you think from Facebook shoes, pushing the “Like” button makes perfect sense for two reasons.

First, content sharing is much more rapid, instantaneous and lucid. No popups or any other confirmation as such, all the user needs to do is hit the “Like” button on any website, blog, app and the page is shared instantly on his news feed.* Second, the “Like” button is much easier to implement and has a powerful branding attached to it. “Hey I have 12K Likes on my Facebook page while you have only 4K”, you get the idea.

Facebook Spokeswoman Malorie Lucich told Mashable that they will continue to support the Share button, Like is the “recommended solution moving forward.”

What’s your take on the newer features of Facebook’s “Like” button? Do you think it’s useful enough and worth ditching the share button from your website ?

Related: Check out Techie Buzz’s Facebook app

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