Facebook turns Like button into a sharing button

Facebook’s Like buttons just got a lot more important. The embed-anywhere buttons are now found everywhere on the Internet – from the bottom of blog posts to items on Amazon – and clicking on them registers your like on the page (eg: 23 people like this story) and then sends a little link back to your Facebook profile.

Previously that link was a small line with a thumbs up and the title of the webpage you linked to. Now it’s a full-blown share complete with a picture and a blurb about the page. That means liking something just became a much bigger statement.

It’s good news for blogs, and content producers – because it means they get more screen real-estate on the Facebook profiles of their fans. It may mean that people like on stuff less because it has more of an impact on their personal profiles.

Couple of flaws with this already – you know when you mean to post a link and have to fiddle around with thumbnails for a minute to get the right one? Well this doesn’t give you any fiddling time and just picks up the first one it finds. Often the wrong one. It can make you look a bit stupid. Let’s hope that improves….