Yeah – I know – Facebook has made us all become ‘Likers‘ (I know it’s not a word but that’s what we are now)… I, like you, perhaps, was a ‘Fan’ of oodles of businesses but now I just ‘Like’ them – enough said about that though ‘cos here’s a big whopper of a warning!

Did you know that any website or blog owner or editor can add a ‘Like’ button to any page? Well, that’s the whole point because the whole idea is for us to be able to ‘Like’ something regardless where it is on the web – with the recent introduction of the “Universal Like Button“.

Here’s the big whopper of a warning:

Because the ability to code the new ‘Like’ button (which in many cases is a ‘Recommend’ button – as I prefer) is not controlled by Facebook – anyone can add the button.

Here’s the thing: The ‘Recommend’ button you see at the top of this article (right under the article title) does not show you the title or URL of the page it relates to – which means that by clicking it, you could actually be recommending any old crap to your friends without your knowledge.

But we don’t want that to happen now do we?

Before I enter geek territory, let me just say that I do actually ‘Like’ the whole concept of the universal ‘Like/Recommend’ button – there – I said it – I like it and I’m not getting into the whole ‘Like / Fan’ debate again…

The Geeky Stuff:

So here’s a bit of geeky stuff – hopefully you’ll understand.

If you were to go up top of one of my posts and put your mouse over a ‘Recommend’ button (example shown just below this paragraph), and, while holding your mouse there, look at your status bar (the area at the bottom of your browser window) you’ll notice there is no evidence of what the button will do – no URL, no link title – nothing – nada – ziltch.

This is the problem. The use of the universal ‘Like’ button is not controlled or ‘policed’ by Facebook and an unscrupulous website designer or blog editor could, if he or she wanted to, make it appear that your click would ‘recommend’ or ‘like’ the page you are on but – until you visit your Facebook Profile – you have no confirmation…

So… my suggestion:

Always check your profile page after you click a ‘Recommend’ or ‘Like’ button. Always.

You should see, on your Wall, confirmation like the example shown here on my daughter’s wall:

While I am a fan of the Universal use of Like and Recommend buttons and look forward to seeing it’s wide scale implementation, I do still prefer the transparency of a link like the one below;

See what I mean? If you place your mouse over the banner above, you will see the destination in the status bar below – giving you a bit of satisfaction that you are not about to be tricked into ‘recommending’ or ‘liking’ some dodgy website that your wouldn’t want to be associated with. For example:

You can see from the status bar that the URL is at Facebook and the page you are recommending is on my site.

I’m sure Facebook will eventually add some method of preventing this new system from being abused (and I hope so), but, in the meantime, always check and always confirm.

 

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