Initially, Zuckerberg feared it would clutter the platform and seem trivial. “He didn’t actually want to do something that would be seen as trivial,” said co-author Martin Reeves.
The Like button, now a digital staple, almost never made it to Facebook due to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s initial opposition, according to a new book, Like: The Button That Changed The World.
The book explores the button’s complex origin, tracing its evolution from a 2005 sketch by Yelp employee Bob Goodson to Facebook’s eventual adoption in 2009.
Initially, Zuckerberg feared it would clutter the platform and seem trivial. “He didn’t actually want to do something that would be seen as trivial,” said co-author Martin Reeves.
Though the idea wasn’t originally Facebook’s, the company popularized it globally. Other tech pioneers, including YouTube’s Steve Chen and Gmail’s Paul Buchheit, had experimented with similar feedback tools. FriendFeed, a now-defunct network co-founded by Buchheit, even launched a Like button before Facebook.
Once adopted, the Like button fueled user engagement and advertising success. “What content is liked by humans…is probably one of the singularly most valuable things on the internet,” said Max Levchin.
While credited with deepening digital interaction, the button has also sparked emotional concerns, especially among youth, leading Reeves to call it “a product of 100,000 years of evolution.”