Facebook Launches Universal Like Button

Published Apr 22nd, 2010 by Kevin

Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a powerful platform to enable websites around the world to make connections with the popular social media website. Facebook, with over 400 million users, holds one of the largest collections of user information and login details and the implications of this new feature are exciting for developers mainly due to our curiousity as to how this will unfold. At the center of this new launch today is Facebook Connect, a universal login system that can allow websites to customize their experience once a visitor identifies themselves.

Already, dozens of high profile websites are utilizing the new framework. Microsoft’s www.docs.com launched a beta today which allows Facebook friends to share files and documents as long as they are logged into Facebook. Pandora, the streaming music service popular across the USA, now allows users to “Like” artists and songs and will play music that users have identified as their favourite artists in their Facebook profiles.

Another powerful tool as part of this social media revolution in 2010 is the Universal “Like” button, which can have an effect on Digg.com, Delicious and other social bookmarking websites. The Like Button is a tool that can now be implemented into any website and allows Products, People, Websites Pages, Articles and more to be added as a favourite to a Facebook profile and shared wirth their friends via the News Feed.

Sample of the Facebook Universal Like button:

What are possible uses? At Spry, we’re working with the new API platform to develop drop-in components for websites that can easily implement these technologies for a low one time fee, $50 per one time installation. In the next week, we are finalizing our social media platforms which allow all of our clients to benefit from social sharing on their websites, and in the shorter term we will be working on developing intelligent websites that customize their experiences based on the Facebook API.

Who could benefit from customization using Facebook Connect?

• Websites who would like to show relevant articles that match user interests.
• Online stores who want to sell products that actually appeal to the tastes and interests of potential buyers (especially if we know their favourite colour!).
• Businesses who want to find new leads or show others that their Friends have used their services and recommend them.

Although we want to tread these new waters carefully because of a general concern about privacy, we are optimistic that this new launch today will enhance browsing experiences across the Internet. Would you be open to a customized experience of browsing the web if you wanted it? What businesses could benefit from this? Tell us.