What I don’t like about Facebook Like button

more images

Have you noticed the new “like” button, tucked in the “Comment” and “Share” options?  For any Facebook users, “like” button is just another feature that they find in Twitter and Digg, which allows them to share content with their social networks. When you click the Like button, a Link to that page is added to your Facebook profile and a story is shared with your friends. The new function will allow users to signal the content that they like on sites around the Internet. However, its not as simple as it looks, as users might be tricked into “Like” ing pages that they don’t like at all.

According to some marketers, Facebook will be using the data from these interactions to target them with related adverts once they return to Facebook.com. However, Facebook spokesperson denied that the new tool will allows the company to track users product preference.  Still there’s more to it.

The websites owners can embed this content sharing button on their pages. They can add a simple iframe snippet to their html, enablling a nice “Like” button with a count of other people’s “Likes” and a list of faces of people if any of them are your friends. The advantage of this new tool is that it doesn’t require any fancy coding. Just fill up the wizard and paste the embed code like in YouTube, etc.

Well, the like button doesn’t seem to be safe always. For instance when you click the Like button you might land up on Teeth Whitening formulas.

Removing the feed item from your newsfeed doesn’t remove like it remains in your profile. You might be able to click the button again to remove the “Like” relationship.

Due to the crossdomain browser security the Like button iframe really has no way to communicate with the website of which it is a part. The new button compromises this security for convenience.

Facebook might save the situation arguing that no genuine webmaster would like to deceive the visitor. Even if the motivation isn’t strong enterprising spammers may never lose a chance. Spammers can set up content farms showcasing a decent website and use the Like button to sell products. You might be deceived with overlays, opacities and other spam tricks.

There are two solutions which we came across in arnabs world.

One of the solutions is to use the iframe’s HTTP_REFERER to prohibit crossdomain Like feature. It depends on the browser’s security policies.

Another solution would be to provide the user with information about the target of the Like upon mouseover.

We can keep our fingers crossed until Facebook devices a solution.