Here at the Tech Report Memo, we try to make sure to capitalize Like whenever we talk about Facebook’s signifier of passing approval. Because it doesn’t really mean “like”, it doesn’t carry even the small weight of emotion that we’ve come to associate with that term. And now it means less. Facebook is making a mutant form of Like available for mobile app developers.
The mobile “like” action, once implemented, will connect the dots between the “liking” activity inside third-party mobile apps and Facebook, so that each time a person “likes” a piece of content or media in an app, that action is published as a story in the News Feed and delivered as a Facebook notification to the corresponding friend. Should a person “like” a photo from Instagram’s app or “like” a check-in inside Foursquare’s app, for instance, a Facebook notification is sent to the friend and a story is published on Facebook.
Developers don’t need to employ Facebook’s iconic thumbs-up “like” button to make the connection between their apps and the social network. Instead, the “like” activity can be connected to their own buttons — the heart in Foursquare’s app, for instance — for a disguised app-to-Facebook liking experience that maintains their own branding.
So here’s the deal. Don’t lose track of what Like means in a Facebook saturated world. It’s a little hook between Facebook and the app developer or content provider and you It can now be further disguised and called different things but when it gets right down to it, “Like” is a point of identity to further differentiate your profile, sell you ads, and profile you. Cool with that? Okay, then Like away.
Stories You Might Like
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
