Like button

Like
The appearance of the Facebook Like button

The Like button is a feature of Facebook which lets users indicate that they like (or Like) posted content, such as status updates, comments, photos, links shared by friends, and advertisements. It is also a feature of the the Facebook Platform that enables participating websites to display a button which enable sharing the site's content with friends.[1]

When a user clicks the Like button, the content appears in their friends' News Feeds.[2] The button also displays the number of users that liked each piece of content, and may show a full or partial list of those users.

Facebook describes liking as a way for users to "give positive feedback and connect with things [they] care about."[3]

In August 2011, Google integrated its +1 button to its competing social networking site Google+.[4] (The name "+1" is Internet slang for "I like that" or "I agree".) The social microblogging site Twitter also launched a "Follow" button around the same time.[5]

Contents

Use on Facebook

A "Like Box" also allows Facebook page owners to see how many users and which of their friends like the page.[6]

A lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles in 2010 claiming the Facebook should not allow minors to like advertising; Facebook said the suit was "completely without merit."[7]

Use on outside websites

The Like button is one of Facebook's social plug-ins, which are for use on websites outside Facebook,[8] a feature which launched April 21, 2010, as part of Facebook's Open Graph, an interface for integrating websites with Facebook's social graph.[9][10] Speaking at Facebook's F8 developer conference on the day of the launch CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "we are building a Web where the default is social."[10][11]

Since then the feature has aroused scrutiny over privacy concerns because the social plug-ins allow Facebook to track visitors to participating sites across the web, even if those visitors do not click the Like button,[12] are logged out of Facebook, or are not Facebook users at all.[13] The Like button is implemented similarly to an advertising network, and as more sites participate, gives Facebook a vast amount of information about who visits which sites, and when. When loading a web page which has the Like button enabled, the user's browser connects to Facebook's servers, which record the URL being visited, and the visitor's IP address and Facebook ID (if logged in). In June 2010 Facebook said it anonymizes this information after three months, and does sell or otherwise share that information. The ACLU of Northern California cautioned website operators to be careful about installing Like buttons because "they're potentially telling Facebook about everyone who visits their web site, every time that person visits their web site."[12]

By September of that year over 350,000 sites were using the Like button.[14]

In August 2011 the German state of Schleswig-Holstein said the button breached German data protection laws and that federal agencies must remove the buttons and similar social plug-ins from their websites.[15] Canada's Privacy Commissioner had raised similar concerns in 2010.[16]

From the end of 2010 and in the US, Microsoft's Bing search engine identifies which links in the results have been "Liked" by the searcher's Facebook friends.[17][18]

Vulnerability to attacks

"Like" links are vulnerable to likejacking, a form of clickjacking that makes users "Like" content they did not intend to.[19]

In popular culture

In 2011 an Israeli couple named their child Like after the Facebook feature.[20]

See also

References

  1. ^ Arrington, Michael (March 25, 2010). "Facebook To Release a "Like" Button For the Whole Darn Internet". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/25/facebook-to-release-a-like-button-for-the-whole-darn-internet/. Retrieved December 29, 2011. 
  2. ^ Porterfield, Amy; Khare, Phyllis; Vahl, Andrea (2011). "Chapter 3: Better Engagement with the Help of Facebook Like Links and Buttons". Facebook Marketing All-in-One for Dummies. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0470942304. http://books.google.com/books?id=xAvPKgd-jMsC&pg=PA297. 
  3. ^ "Like". Facebook Help Centre. http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=773. Retrieved 24 August 2011. 
  4. ^ Newman, Jared (24 August 2011). "Google +1 Now Links to Google+ Profiles: Let the War on Facebook's 'Like' Button Begin". PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/238726/google_1_now_links_to_google_profiles_let_the_war_on_facebooks_like_button_begin.html. Retrieved 24 August 2011. 
  5. ^ Bazilian, Emma (June 1, 2011). "Twitter and Google Launch Their Own 'Like' Buttons". Adweek. http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/twitter-and-google-launch-their-own-buttons-132154. Retrieved December 19, 2011. 
  6. ^ "Like Box". Facebook Developers. http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like-box/. Retrieved 24 August 2011. 
  7. ^ "Lawsuit says teens too young to "Like" Facebook ads". France24/AFP. 27 August 2010. http://www.france24.com/en/20100827-lawsuit-says-teens-young-like-facebook-ads. Retrieved 24 August 2011. 
  8. ^ "Social Plugins". Facebook Developers. Facebook. 19 December 2011. http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/. Retrieved 19 December 2011. 
  9. ^ Siegler, MG (April 21, 2010). "Facebook: We'll Serve 1 Billion Likes on the Web in Just 24 Hours". TechCrunch. http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/21/facebook-like-button/. Retrieved December 19, 2011. 
  10. ^ a b Fletcher, Dan (April 22, 2010). "Facebook Looks to Get Personal". Time. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1983721,00.html. Retrieved December 19, 2011. 
  11. ^ Schonfeld, Erick (April 21, 2010). "Zuckerberg: 'We Are Building a Web Where the Default is Social'". TechCrunch. 
  12. ^ a b McCullagh, Declan (June 2, 2010). "Facebook 'Like' button draws privacy scrutiny". CNET News. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20006532-38.html. Retrieved December 19, 2011. 
  13. ^ Roosendaal, Arnold (November 30, 2010). "Facebook Tracks and Traces Everyone: Like This!". http://ssrn.com/abstract=1717563. Retrieved September 27, 2011. 
  14. ^ Gelles, David (21 September 2010). "E-commerce takes instant liking to Facebook button". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1599be2e-c5a9-11df-ab48-00144feab49a.html?=dbk. Retrieved 24 August 2011. 
  15. ^ Albanesius, Chloe (August 19, 2011). "German Agencies Banned From Using Facebook, 'Like' Button". PC Magazine. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2391440,00.asp. Retrieved August 24, 2011. 
  16. ^ "Facebook privacy probed over 'like,' invitations". CBC News. September 23, 2010. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2010/09/23/facebook-like-invitations.html. Retrieved August 24, 2011. 
  17. ^ Yin, Sara (15 December 2010). "Microsoft Adds Facebook 'Likes' to Bing Search Results". PC Mag. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2374385,00.asp. Retrieved 25 August 2011. 
  18. ^ Yiu, Paul; The Bing Team (15 December 2010). "Bing Feature Update: Discover more things your Facebook friends like". Bing Search blog. Microsoft. http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2010/12/14/bing-feature-update-discover-more-things-your-friends-like.aspx. Retrieved 25 August 2011. 
  19. ^ Perez, Sarah (1 June 2010). ""Likejacking" Takes Off on Facebook". ReadWriteWeb. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/likejacking_takes_off_on_facebook.php. Retrieved 24 August 2011. 
  20. ^ "Inspired by Facebook, Israeli couple names their daughter Like". Haaretz. 16 May 2011. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/inspired-by-facebook-israeli-couple-names-their-daughter-like-1.362118. Retrieved 24 August 2011.