One of the grand new things coming to Facebook (according to Facebook) is the open graph and “frictionless sharing.” Not only does Facebook want to be the place where everything you do around the web is shared, but they also want it to be super-easy to do so.
This means removing some of those permission screens required before you share something – things can be posted to your wall and appear in your friends’ streams in real time. You can imagine that some people are already concerned about some of the privacy implications.
Another part of the “open graph” is the concept of new verbs to describe activity. Facebook wants to move away from users having to “like” everything, because that promotes an endorsement. Say you want your friends to know that your watched a film or read a book, but you didn’t particularly care for it. You certainly don’t want to “like” it, but you might share that you “watched” it.
That’s where the new verbs come into play. This could include read, watched, listened to for media – or even cooked, made, saw or other actions that Zuckerberg referred to as “lightweight activities” at the f8 conference.
Facebook app developers will be able to implement these new verbs into their apps. “Josh is watching Breaking Bad” or “Josh cooked Chicken Tikka Masala.”
One word that Facebook doesn’t want popping up around the network – Dislike.
Here’s what happens when you try to write that word into an app, courtesy of All Facebook–
Seriously. Facebook really really dislikes the idea of disliking stuff. Think about all the times a dislike button would be relevant – you disliked a movie you just watched, you disliked the fact that your best friend got engaged, you disliked the moronic song lyrics your cousin just posted…the possibilities are endless.
People are still crazy about the idea of being able to dislike things on Facebook. There are dozens of pages dedicated to Facebook bringing in a dislike button. The official page for the “Dislike button” has over 3.3 million likes.
Unfortunately for them, it looks like we won’t see the practice of disliking coming to Facebook anytime soon.
