Facebook "Like" button about to go web-wide

Facebook have announced that their “Like” button is about to become available across the web. Acting as a content sharing button similar to StumbleUpon and Digg, clicking the button when browsing online will send a link to the user’s Facebook news stream to be shared with all their contacts after a single press.

The button is to be officially unveiled at the Facebook F8 conference in San Francisco this week, having only been displayed briefly to marketers at a pre-show conference over the weekend, the Financial Times are reporting.

Whilst Facebook believe the “Like” button will make the web more social, cynics believe it to be just another tool for the Facebook team to use to mine data about their users and further refine their advertising techniques.

The “Like” button is already expected to replace the “Become a fan” button tied to brands on the site, with these “engagement ads” already used by advertisers to get access to user’s data and to insert promotional material into their news feeds.