About:
Like: The Button That Changed the Worldby Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson is exactly what it sounds like, a whole book about the “Like” button and its affects on society, Internet commerce, and profiling users.
- 288 pages
- Publisher : Harvard Business Review Press
- Language : English
- ISBN-13 : 979-8892790451
My rating forLike — 4
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More Books by Martin Reeves*
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Thoughts:
This isn’t a technology book per se, actually it’s not a technology book at all. The book is mainly about consumerism, marketing, psychology, and business.
I always knew that the “Like” button was more intelligent that it seemed. Not just measuring what one is interested in but also collecting many other analytics. In one of the technology books I’ve read, a whole section was dedicated to it.
The authors, smartly, stayed away from technical/business/medical jargon which makes the book easy to read and understand. The parts I found most fascinating were the ones involving the human psyche as to why this small button had such an immense impact on individuals, and society at large.
The one thing which I think the authors missed was Facebook’s feature to include the like button on external websites which really honed their algorithm and marketing prowess. I always thought that this aspect was a significant change, for the time, and would have liked to see the authors’ viewpoints on it.
Some of the book seemed like a filler, the history of the “thumb up” through the ages was interesting, but I felt it was irrelevant until to the subject. At least until we got to the modem age with an honorable mention to Siskel and Ebert for their “thumbs up/thumbs down” schtick and how it took hold on pop-culture since.
The end ofLikeby Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson tries to predict what the future holds to the technology which makes us feel good, but also innocuously collects large swaths of information. Like every technology it’s both a blessing and a curse, and will most likely be used to the worst thing imaginable, or one we can’t imagine, while enhancing our lives at the same time.
BuyLike from Amazon.com*
More Books by Martin Reeves*
More Books by Bob Goodson*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer:I got this book for free.
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account, the money is usually spent on books
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