‘Dislike’ button in Facebook
Although the company denied it would ever happen, Facebook is finally working on a new “Dislike” button for the social network.
The
news was announced during a Q&A session with Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg today, although details about the dislike button itself were
scarce, according to CNBC.
Facebook’s
previous anti-dislike button stance actually made a lot of sense, as
the company didn’t want its users actively spreading negativity to
things shared on the social network — nor did it want to provide a new
way for people to be trolled or harassed. I’d imagine the bulk of this
opinion, though, had to do with sponsored or promoted content that
brands and companies pay Facebook to target key demographics.
Therefore,
when we do finally see the dislike button debut, don’t expect it to
function much like the current “Like” button. That means you probably
won’t be able to see a list of all the people that dislike a page or
status update. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook didn’t even
include the total number of times people “dislike” something — both for
users and certainly for developers.
But while Facebook might not want its users spreading dislikes
all over the place, it is likely that it does want to know when you
don’t like something. You’ve already been able to tell the company on
targeted advertising — and when you hide things from your post, that too
suggests you “dislike” it. None of that data is available to the
public, but you can bet Facebook uses it to make its product better.
Whatever
form the dislike button takes, it should at minimum do one positive
thing for Facebook: Increase the activity (and perhaps time spent)
people spend on the social network.
Courtesy: Gigaom
