Facebook is experimenting with adding a Follow button on Pages. The company confirmed this is a feature it is currently trying out after it showed up for some users. “This is something we are currently testing,” a Facebook spokesperson told TNW.
The Follow button appears directly to the left of the Like button. The new button was first spotted by Wimdu‘s Matteo Gamba, who sent a screenshot to AllFacebook showing it before and after it was clicked:
When most Facebook users navigate to Wimdu’s Facebook Page, they don’t see the new button. This is thus a limited test in which the company is seeing how a fraction of users react to a change on the site.
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What’s interesting here is that the Follow button would apparently be kept alongside the Like button, as opposed to replacing it. If this was indeed how it were to be implemented, assuming the test goes well, this would mean Liking may no longer subscribe users to updates from a given Page (notice that in the screenshots, the Like button has already been clicked).
In that case, Liking would go back to meaning “I’m showing I like this” as opposed to “I’m showing I like this and want to get updates in my News Feed.” On the other hand, that may just be wishful thinking; Facebook is likely experimenting with multiple variations of the feature.
Last year, Facebook changed the name of for the button on profiles from “Subscribe” to “Follow.” Now it might be looking to bring the same name to Pages.
Facebook and Twitter regularly snatch features from each other, trying out different ideas to see how they will work on their respective social networks.
Update on October 16: A review button has also shown up on Wimdu’s Page. The screenshot below is again courtesy of AllFacebook.
See also – Facebook copies Twitter yet again, launches hashtags to let users add context and discover shared interests and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone gives Facebook some advice: Offer a $10 premium subscription without ads
Top Image Credit: AFP / Getty Images
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