How to "Like" Anything on the Web (Safely) | Hacker News Reader

How to "Like" Anything on the Web (Safely)

readwriteweb.com

21 pointsmhunter11 comments

So why would I want to "like" something?

I'm not one of these too-cool-for-facebook types, but if I really want to share something with my facebook friends I can always just post a link, and perhaps throw in a little commentary. Liking seems superfluous and spammy, and if any of my friends start liking things frequently I'm afraid I'll have to add them to the block list.

> So why would I want to "like" something?

Because you're an average user who finds it convenient to press this one button?

As opposed to:

* firing up the mail client and whittling through your friends to mail only those who might be interested.

* starting a blog/twitter/tumblr account and getting people to check it.

With "like", you hit one button, and people see your recommendation. And since it's mixed in with everyone else's recommendations, it's not annoying like bulk-spamming people with news links and more satisfying than setting up a blog no-one reads.

I think it's dumb myself. But I clearly see why people do it. Like many annoying features on Facebook: it shrewdly exploits social customs.

Oh no, I meant post the link to facebook. Copy-and-paste into a status update.

So it's the facebook bookmarklet. http://www.facebook.com/share_options.php

This already existed. What facebook was missing before was actually encouraging the bookmarklet's use and providing analytics on facebook for website owners to see what people used the bookmarklet on (presumably, if you integrate facebook's like functionality on your site, you can see what people are liking).

I really want to check the posted URL and be sure that it points exactly where I want, and doesn't reveal anything unnecessary (all those URLs with tons of information after '?'). I'd feel very embarrassed if I had posted something spam-like. And it's not that hard. Just use some desktop twitter client, copy URL there, copy it back to the browser, try it, make some corrections if needed, and that's it. It shouldn't be that hard.

I agree completely. But zero-friction and social loophole-ing [1] is awfully attractive to your average FB user.

[1] if the link is wrong, it's stupid FB's fault, not mine.

if the link has unnecessary cruft, that's fine, because only non-technical FB people will ever look at the query-string.

I don't stand out as spammy, because everyone's "like"s are in the same place

I believe this was started on HN (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1286084)

Deleted comment

What do you mean?

Off the top of my head I'm not sure but I guess Facebook is unable to use javascript inside an iframe to determine the current url? What about when the like button is clicked, no way to confirm the url?

Two words people: BOOK MARKS

Or if you want to get fancy, there is delicious.

(Yes, I'm being sarcastic)

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