Like something on Facebook? Soon there’ll be ‘Reactions’
By Meg Graham Blue Sky Innovation
In the next few weeks, you’ll be able to respond to Donald Trump
supporters or lost kitten posts on your Facebook News Feed with
something other than a Like or a Block.
The company will roll out five "Reactions" — Angry, Sad, Wow, Haha
and Love — in the U.S. in the next few weeks, according to Bloomberg
Business.
In September, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company was
working on alternatives to the Like button — and said Facebook users had
long wanted “the ability to express empathy” more deeply.
Facebook began testing Reactions in October in Spain, Ireland,
Chile, the Philippines, Portugal and Colombia, after which the company
decided to drop “Yay” from the lineup because it wasn’t “universally
understood.” The social network will tally the reactions — expressed as
emojis — on each post.
The new feature will also give the company and advertisers more
nuanced data about how people react to different posts.
“We see this as an opportunity for businesses and publishers to
better understand how people are responding to their content on
Facebook,” Facebook product manager Chris Tosswill wrote in a blog post.
“People have asked about the dislike button for many years,”
Zuckerberg said in September. “We’ve finally heard you and we’re working
on this and we will deliver something that meets the needs of the larger
community.”
The company put the new options to the test during the Paris
terrorist attacks in November — during which users employed the new
variety of reactions rather than having to stick to Like.
“It just felt different to use Facebook that day,” Facebook chief
product officer Chris Cox told Bloomberg.
But for all the Facebook purists, don’t fret: The Like button isn’t
going anywhere. mgra...@tribpub.com Twitter @megancgraham
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*================================================ Duane Whittingham -
N9SSN (ARES/RACES, EmComm, Skywarn & Red Cross)
http://www.radiodude.info ================================================*
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