Facebook Inc (FB) Creates New Design For ‘Like’ Button

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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s like button, found on millions of pages around the web, is getting a new look. The social media giant is dumping its old logo in favor of a thumps-up icon. The move is a part of a broader redesign of social plugin buttons to make them more distinct and flatter.

Facebook updates several plugins

In a blog post, the social networking site said, “Our hypothesis was that more people would recognize the thumbs-up icon on the like button, so we conducted qualitative and quantitative tests to measure them side by side.” The results disclosed a 6% increase in likes, and hence, the social network is “switching the like button from the Facebook ‘f’ logo to the thumbs-up icon.”

Both the sharing and liking buttons were used on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s corporate logo previously, but now, they have their own icons. Also there are new icons for recommending, following and saving articles to read later. In addition, buttons for sharing, commenting and liking will also be added to Facebook’s fast-loading Instant Articles format in the next couple weeks, the social media giant said.

There are still some questions, like is the new icon better than the last? It is actually a mixed bag, and the “thumbs-up” sign makes much more sense than the Facebook logo, says The Verge. However, the old design drew a nice visual distinction between the number of likes and the button. The new icon puts everything in a single blue rectangle.

All you need to know about the share, like and recommend buttons

The share button creates a new Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) post linking to the page where the user clicked the button. It allows them to add a personal message before they post it. The post is immediately shared on the platform as soon as the user clicks the like button. It is shared without giving any chance to users to add a message. But if the button is linked to a brand page, then clicking it means a user will now see future stories from that publisher in their News Feed.

As for the recommend button, it has almost the same function as the like button, but it has a different name to avoid some situations, for instance, a publisher asking people to “like” stories about genocide.

In pre-market trading today, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares were up almost 1%. Year to date, the stock is up more than 6%, while in the last year, it is up more than 28%. The stock has a 52-week high of $135.60 and a 52-week low of $72.

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