Like button

This article is about the like button in general. For the like button used for Facebook, see Facebook like button.

A like button, like option, or recommend button is a feature in communication software such as social networking services, Internet forums, news websites and blogs where the user can express that they like, enjoy or support certain content.^[1] Internet services that feature like buttons usually display the number of users who liked each content, and may show a full or partial list of them. This is a quantitative alternative to other methods of expressing reaction to content, like writing a reply text. Some websites also include a dislike button, so the user can either vote in favor, against or neutrally. Other websites include more complex web content voting systems. For example, five stars or reaction buttons to show a wider range of emotion to the content.

Example of a like button

Implementations

Vimeo

Video sharing site Vimeo added a "like" button in November 2005.^[2] Developer Andrew Pile describes it as an iteration of the "digg" button from the site Digg.com, saying "We liked the Digg concept, but we didn't want to call it 'Diggs,' so we came up with 'Likes'".^[2]

FriendFeed

The like button on FriendFeed was announced as a feature on October 30, 2007, and was popularized within that community.^[3] Later the feature was integrated into Facebook before FriendFeed was acquired by Facebook on August 10, 2009.^[4]

Facebook

Main article: Facebook like button

 

The "Like" icon used by Facebook.

The Facebook like button is designed as a hand giving "thumbs up". It was originally discussed to have been a star or a plus sign, and during development the feature was referred to as "awesome" instead of "like".^{[citation needed]} It was introduced on 9 February 2009.^[5] In February 2016, Facebook introduced reactions - a new way to express peoples emotions to Facebook posts. Some reactions included "Love", "Haha", "Wow", "Sad", or "Angry".

The like button is a significant power sharing tool, as one "like" will make the post show up on friends' feed, boosting the algorithm to ensure the post is seen and interacted with in order to continue the cycle of engagement.^[6] On the other hand, a study highlights the disadvantage of the “like” reaction in algorithmic content ranking on Facebook. The "like” button can increase the engagement, but can decrease the organic reach as a “brake effect of viral reach”.^[7]

YouTube

In 2010, as part of a wider redesign of the service, YouTube switched from a star-based rating system to Like/Dislike buttons. Under the previous system, users could rate videos on a scale from 1 to 5 stars; YouTube staff argued that this change reflected common usage of the system, as 2-, 3-, and 4-star ratings were not used as often.^[8][9] In 2012, YouTube briefly experimented with replacing the Like and Dislike buttons with a Google+ +1 button.^[10]

In 2019, after the backlash from YouTube Rewind 2018, YouTube began considering options to combat "dislike mobs," including an option to completely remove the dislike button.^[11] The video is the most disliked video on YouTube, passing the music video for Justin Bieber's "Baby". On November 12, 2021, YouTube announced it will make dislike counts private, with only the content creator being able to view the number of dislikes on the back end, in what the company says is an effort to combat targeted dislike and harassment campaigns and encourage smaller content creators.^[12]

In protest of YouTube hiding dislike counts, a YouTuber created a channel called The Peter Dislike Show encouraging his followers to support his channel by disliking his videos. ^[13]

Google+

 

+1, the "Like" button of Google+ (old version)

Google+ had a like button called the +1 (Internet jargon for "I like that" or "I agree"), which was introduced in June 2011.^[14] In August 2011, the +1 button also became a share icon.^[15]

Reddit

On Reddit (a system of message boards), users can upvote and downvote posts (and comments on posts). The votes contribute to posters' and commenters' "karma" (Reddit's name for a user's overall rating).^[16]

X

 

2007 X (then called Twitter) post with a star icon to the right as its "favorite" button.

Alongside reposts, X users can like posts made on the service, indicated by a heart. Until November 2015, the equivalent of “liking a post” was “favoriting a post” and favorites were symbolized by a gold star ( ). However, that was changed to alleviate user confusion and put the function more in line with other social networks, the favorite function was renamed to like.^[17]

VK

VK like buttons for posts, comments, media and external sites operate in a different way from Facebook. Liked content doesn't get automatically pushed to the user's wall, but is saved in the (private) Favorites section instead.

Instagram

The Instagram like button is indicated by a heart symbol. In addition to tapping the heart symbol on a post, users can double tap an image to "like" it. In May 2019, Instagram began tests wherein the number of likes on a user's post is hidden from other users.^[18]

TikTok

The TikTok like button is indicated by a heart symbol, and users can use the like button by double tapping on a post they like, similar to Instagram. Liked content can be accessed via the "Liked" tab on a user's profile.

XWiki

XWiki, the application wiki and open source collaborative platform, added the "Like" button in version 12.7. This button allows users to like wiki pages. It is possible to see all liked pages and the Like counter for each page.

LinkedIn

The business and employment social media LinkedIn includes a "like" button. In 2019 the platform added reaction options such as "celebrate", "love", "insightful" and "support".^[19][20]

Legal issues

In 2017, a man was fined 4,000 Swiss francs by a Swiss regional court for liking defamatory messages on Facebook written by other people which criticized an activist. According to the court, the defendant "clearly endorsed the unseemly content and made it his own".^[21]

See also

• Likejacking
• Moderation system
• Recommender system
• Surfbook
• Trust metric

References

1. Dedić, N. and Stanier, C. (2017) "Towards Differentiating Business Intelligence, Big Data, Data Analytics and Knowledge Discovery". Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP). Springer International Publishing. Volume 285.
2. "How Vimeo became hipster YouTube". Fortune. 23 February 2011. Retrieved 1 December 2021.
3. Taylor, Bret (30 October 2007). "I like it, I like it". FriendFeed Blog. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
4. Kincaid, Jason (10 August 2009). "Facebook Acquires FriendFeed (Updated)". TechCrunch. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
5. Kincaid, Jason (9 February 2009). "Facebook Activates "Like" Button; FriendFeed Tires Of Sincere Flattery". TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
6. Ozanne, Marie; Cueva Navas, Ana; Mattila, Anna S.; Van Hoof, Hubert B. (1 April 2017). "An Investigation Into Facebook "Liking" Behavior An Exploratory Study". Social Media + Society. 3 (2): 2056305117706785. doi:10.1177/2056305117706785. ISSN 2056-3051.
7. Pócs, Dávid; Adamovits, Otília; Watti, Jezdancher; Kovács, Róbert; Kelemen, Oguz (21 June 2021). "Facebook Users' Interactions, Organic Reach, and Engagement in a Smoking Cessation Intervention: Content Analysis". Journal of Medical Internet Research. 23 (6): e27853. doi:10.2196/27853. ISSN 1438-8871. PMC 8277334. PMID 34152280.
8. Lowensohn, Josh (31 March 2010). "YouTube's big redesign goes live to everyone". CNET. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
9. Siegler, M.G. (22 September 2009). "YouTube Comes To A 5-Star Realization: Its Ratings Are Useless". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
10. . Geek.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2015.
11. Best, Shivali (5 February 2019). "YouTube might remove its dislike button to combat 'dislike mobs'". mirror. Retrieved 18 February 2019.
12. Perez, Sarah (12 November 2021). "YouTube is removing the dislike count on all videos across its platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
13. "Please show your support for my channel by disliking". YouTube.
14. Siegler, M.G. (31 May 2011). "Whoops Redux: Looks Like Partner Just Leaked Google's +1 Button For Websites Launch". TechCrunch. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
15. Newman, Jared (24 August 2011). "Google +1 Now Links to Google+ Profiles: Let the War on Facebook's 'Like' Button Begin". PC World. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
16. "Yes, Reddit's r/The_Donald was infiltrated by anti-Clinton Russian trolls". Newsweek. 11 April 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
17. "Twitter officially kills off favorites and replaces them with likes". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
18. Padilla, Mariel (18 July 2019). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
19. Leonard, Jay (25 April 2019). "LinkedIn Rolling Out Reaction Buttons". Business 2 Community. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
20. Hutchinson, Andrew (17 June 2022). "LinkedIn Launches Initial Rollout of its New 'Funny' Reaction". SocialMediaToday. Retrieved 27 March 2023.
21. Man fined by Swiss court for 'liking' defamatory comments on Facebook - The Guardian / AFP, 20 May 2017