Facebook changes the "Become a Fan" button to "Like" for Pages

[Harold Mansfield]

To improve your experience and promote consistency across the site, we've changed the language for Pages from "Fan" to "Like." We believe this change offers you a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which you are interested.

example;
http://ipundit.org/files/2010/04/like-button.jpg

I for one am very happy about this. I always felt "Become a Fan" was a little too much pressure for regular businesses, it kind of kept me away from making pages lately.Too much like a popularity kind of thing...but people will "Like" pretty much anything. "Becoming a Fan" always seemed like a commitment. Maybe it's just me.

I think this is for the best for everyone.(well at least for me)
What do you guys think?

[KristineS]

They've already changed it back, at least on the page we have for one of our businesses. I didn't see that there was a huge outcry over it, but it went away very fast.

[Harold Mansfield]

They've already changed it back, at least on the page we have for one of our businesses. I didn't see that there was a huge outcry over it, but it went away very fast.

Figures. I actually liked it.. Oh Well.

What'd that last an hour?..After they probably talked about it for 3 months.
Well at least I got to preserve a little Social Networking History on the thread.

[KristineS]

I didn't really even have time to figure out if I liked the change or not. It was there and then it was gone.

Facebook does weird things like that sometimes.

[Harold Mansfield]

It's back again today. I saw it on one of my pages.
Why don't they just give you the option of either or?

This is getting to be like an episode of LOST. I turned my head for one second and then had no idea what was going on, so I stopped watching it.

[KristineS]

I noticed it seemed to be back in some places too.

Personally I never had a problem with the idea of being a fan of a business. To me it made sense. It also seems to carry a lot more oomph than "like". Like is sort of a lukewarm word in my opinion.

[Spider]

I especially like how the 'Liked' pages show your friends that like that page in addition to the total people that like it. 'Fans' didn't do that.

Both my pages are 'liked' pages, now. With so many FB pages and FB members, any system-wide change would have to be introduced in phases, I guess.

[Harold Mansfield]

In case anyone was looking, here is the link to make a "Like" or "recommend" button for any URL. You don't have to have a Fan Page, or Profile anymore to have a like button.

Like Button - Facebook Developers (http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like)

[alfromla]

imho Facebook is directly challenging google and their ranking methods by trying to redefine a website's popularity.

Last week I got a tweet that many of Google employees canceled their Facebook accounts and I bet it was an order from higher up.

I love capitalism because it allows competition and leaves room for innovation and Facebook is innovating and redefining the search!

[Harold Mansfield]

What ever happens, I pray that these 2 entities (Facebook and Google) DO NOT get together, collaborate or even discuss any kind of joint project in the future.

[Dan Furman]

Facebook is getting annoying. There's only so many times you can change the basics before people start revolting.

[greenoak]

i like the fan better than like.....i like a lot of stuff but dont want it in my facebook stream every morning...
but im trying to go with the flow...even if i really dislike it... ..
ann

[KristineS]

I think Facebook is starting more and more to look beyond the user experience to how they can monetize the site. So they do things because they think it will bring in more revenue to the people who are there primarily for revenue reasons. Unfortunately, a lot of that stuff tends not to work so well for people who are smaller businesses, or people who are just using the site for its original purpose.

[Harold Mansfield]

Has anyone heard anything about Facebook charging users? I see little groups and petitions about "Keeping Facebook free" but I haven't seen anything that say's they are even considering charging people.

[KristineS]

I've seen the keep Facebook free groups too, but I've not heard anything about them charging. It could just be a rumor that spread.