Facebook to Announce a "Like" Button For Web

19 Apr 2010

An announcement shall be made at Facebook's annual conference that the site shall be releasing a "like" button which other websites can embed on their pages.

F8, the annual conference shall be held on Wednesday in San Francisco and will announce the release of this new tool which will enable users to signal to content they like from other sites.

Marketers briefed on the plans have leaked the information ahead of time ans have also said that Facebook will use the new tool as a way of targeting users with adverts more relevant to their tastes.

Last night however, a spokesman from the social networking site said that the new tool would not be used to track users.

"All the products we are launching at F8 are focused on giving developers and entrepreneurs ways to make the web more social," the spokesperson stated. "We have no announcements or changes planned to our ad offering and policies."

Currently Facebook targets advertisements based upon the information users give about themselves on the site.

However, Facebook is expected to roll out the "like" function to other parts of the site, including its "engagement ads".

Engagement ads encourage users to "become a fan" of big name brands. This means agreeing to receive messages or special offers from that brand which of course makes it easier for advertisers to target users.

It is expected that one of the changes to be announced this week, will see Facebook replace the "Become a fan" button with an invitation to say "I like" a brand.

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