Around the Net
Facebook Enhances 'Like' Reach
- Inside Facebook, Monday, February 28, 2011 12:08 PM
In a bid to increase its already-daunting online footprint, Facebook has augmented activated Like and Recommend buttons to publish full news feed stories -- instead of one-line Recent Activity stories. "The change gives more prominence to outbound links in the news feed and on a user's wall, and so will increase referral traffic and draw more sites to add the Like button," writes Inside Facebook.
"In other words, when you hit that 'Like' button to express your thumbs-up
approval of a particular site or story, Facebook will now post an update to your wall that includes a lot more details about what you're approving," notes ReadWriteWeb."This change will likely be a
boon to publishers that will see more of their content fill more news streams," ReadWriteWeb adds. "But it may not be a welcome change to Facebook users who find their feeds full of
likes-are-now-shares."
What's more, "Because the content will now be more prominent on user's walls, some may be more reluctant to click the Like button," according to CNet. "Perhaps the change was necessary," suggest Mashable. "Because it was never made clear to users that the Like button would
function differently than the Share button, many never understood what it meant to click Like on a piece of content. Making the result the same as the Share button could build stronger user
expectations, ultimately fashioning a better user experience."
>Either way, "While some users are complaining that the Like button and the Share button fulfill distinct roles -- you might want
to share a story about a government regime firing on unarmed protesters, but you certainly don't want to 'Like' it -- whether you like it or not, the Share button seems to be going the way of the
dodo," Downloadsquad writes.
Sharing is easy enough, but liking is far easier. With sharing you have to write something, which requires a tiny bit of effort. With liking, it's a visceral reaction, just a click, a pat on the back, a thumbs up, which requires no thought at all. It's just a feeling: "I like that" (Or not.)
I never click Like on any location outside of Facebook and I tell my friends and family never too as well. Our FB Stream is for friends and family and a few select brands or content we love (like a band). We do not need intrusion by brands into our feeds forming really a network full of spam. If half my stream was brand posts I would be gone so fast, just as will everyone else.
This just confirms Facebook's intent to evolve into a Spam Network from a Communications Platform.