Facebook redesigns Like button, adds thumbnails

Facebook's Like button - more liked than Share
Facebook's Like button - more liked than Share

Facebook has made some significant changes to its Like button, with the addition of a thumbnail and a snippet of information to your Facebook feed every time you click on the icon on a third-party website.

These new features were originally consigned to the Share button, which now looks as if it is being phased out by the social network.

Facebook's Like button has spread through the internet like digital knotweed in recent months, proving a popular tool for sharing articles and telling your Facebook friends what web articles you have liked reading.

Push the button

The Like button was originally offered to web developers alongside Recommended and Share functionality, but it now seems that the Share button is no more.

If you want to add it to a website, you are redirected the more visually enticing thumbs-up logo of the Like button.

Facebook has had many digital stalwarts praising it for the introduction of the Like button, with Google's Eric Schmidtsaying back in 2010: "It's a new phenomenon and it's a good one."

Which is a bit like Picasso saying he thinks the sketch you did was "pretty good".

Facebook hasn't confirmed that its Like button is replacing the rest of its share functionality, but if it is then this could cause problems for sharing articles of interest that contain information that you don't necessarily like - for example, a well-written piece about the on-going problems in Libya.

If this is the case, then the Like button would get the thumbs down from many users.

Via Cnet

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.