Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Facebook "Un-Shares" For a Few Features, Leaving You With "Like"



Facebook's self-professed goal is to create a system where people can share information. Few days ago, however, they removed the "share" link from a few features. For instance, if you see a friend's status update that's cool, you can "like" it but you can't share it anymore. Previously, if you clicked on share, it would show up in your status update as "Your name via Friend's Name Whose Status You Shared". Now, if you allow it to in your settings, once you like something, it will only show up on your wall as something you like.
Like it or not
Links, photos and videos still have the share button but here too, the share button is going to be replaced with the like button. When you like a link, a whole box will show up on your profile with a thumbnail from the link and will also show up on your friends' homepage, instead of just a line saying you liked a link. You and your friends will be able to comment on your action. This might make you more unlikely to like links now because it does seem a little intrusive but it's designed to increase pageviews for the sites whose links you post. Facebook continues to develop the Like button and has stopped all development on the Share button.
This seems logical because the prevalence of both the Like and the Share button makes Facebook activity a little redundant. However, we're hoping that you can control what type of content will show up as a post on your page when you hit like and what doesn't, without insulting your friends too much of course.

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