Like

Like The button that changed the world

Martin Reeves

Book - 2025

"Over seven billion times a day, someone taps a like button. How could something that came out of nowhere become so ubiquitous and so familiar-and even so addictive? What problem does it solve for people, and why does a "like" feel so good? And by the way, who invented the like button in the first place? In Like, bestselling author and renowned strategist Martin Reeves and coauthor Bob Goodson-Silicon Valley veteran and participant in the invention of the like button-take readers along on a fascinating quest to find out what's behind the world's friendliest icon. It's a story that starts out as simply as a thumbs-up cartoon but ends up presenting surprises and new mysteries at every turn, some of them as deep a...s anthropological history and others as speculative as the AI-charged future. But this isn't just the story of the like button. It's so much more. Using the origin story and evolution of the like button as a jumping-off point, the authors take readers on a fun and fascinating journey through the world of business, offering smart and surprising insights into technology, innovation, creativity, invention, and even us. For such a small and unassuming invention to take on such scale and power, it must be tapping into something very, very big"-- Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Internet marketing > Psychological aspects.
Social media > Psychological aspects.
Social media > Economic aspects.
Social media and society.
Praise in social media.
Business > Technological innovations.
Marketing sur Internet > Aspect psychologique.
Médias sociaux > Aspect psychologique.
Médias sociaux > Aspect économique.
Médias sociaux et société.
Affaires > Innovations.
Social media.
Published
Boston, Massachusetts : Harvard Business Review Press [2025]
Language
English
Main Author
Martin Reeves (author)
Other Authors
Robert Goodson, 1980- (author)
Physical Description
ix, 260 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9798892790451
  • Introduction
  • Why a Book about the Like Button?
  • How could something that came out of nowhere become so familiar that we use it every single day without giving it a second thought? The story of the like button presents surprises and new mysteries at every turn, revealing much about technology, innovation, creativity, business, and even ourselves.
  • Chapter 1. The Invention of the Like Button
  • Where did the like button come from to begin with? Its origin story introduces you to medieval monks and their manuscripts, a customer named Kevin, and some of the most fascinating innovators in Silicon Valley at the dawn of a new era.
  • Chapter 2. How Does Innovation Happen?
  • The people who developed the like button weren't consciously trying to invent the next big thing. They were just trying to solve that week's design challenge. This chapter reveals the disorderly, serendipitous, unguided process from which high-impact innovations usually emerge-how stuff really gets conceived and built in Silicon Valley.
  • Chapter 3. Why the Thumb?
  • A button for registering approval could have taken many forms. Why had early innovators' minds gone in the direction of a thumbs-up, and why did others gravitate to that same symbol? This chapter tells the tale.
  • Chapter 4. Why Do We Like Likes?
  • What was really going on in the explosive adoption of the like? This chapter draws on evolutionary biology, anthropology, social psychology, neuroscience, and other human-centered disciplines to examine just why we like likes.
  • Chapter 5. What Happens When You Click?
  • How does the machinery of liking actually work? What happens when you hit a like button? Take a peek inside the code to find out.
  • Chapter 6. The Business of Likes
  • The people who are getting gratification from the button-the likers and the liked-generally aren't paying a cent for that pleasure. So who is paying for it all, and why? This chapter digs deep into the business of likes: the various models of how liking generates revenues and wealth.
  • Chapter 7. Unintended Consequences
  • The use of social media comes with potential negative impacts on privacy, mental health, and social cohesion, and the like button was pivotal in the meteoric rise of this new industry. In this chapter, we examine how such unintended outcomes arise and how we can better manage them.
  • Chapter 8. The Future of Likes
  • How will liking play out in next-generation digital social environments? Will new norms take hold for where and how to register a like? The book closes with some speculation and early evidence about how liking will happen in the future.
  • Appendix: Timeline of Events in the Development of the Like Button
  • Notes
  • Index
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Authors
Review by Choice Review

Like is a book about a button on a web page, yet it's somehow interesting to read. It details the history of the "like" button, the processes of innovation and invention, and some of the consequences of the like button on the internet and people in general. The authors, one of whom designed an early version of the like button, take a rather comprehensive look at all of the things enabled by the "like" button to justify to the reader that it is a worthy story to tell. This is a rather easy read, and the book is organized well. It simply flows. The stakes are low. There are no villains. There's no great race to create this button. Yet, somehow, there's still a story here. That being said, it is not a book for a general audience. There's not enough intrigue to capture a reader who isn't interested in business, technology, or sociology for their own sake. This is a book for investigating how innovation happens and how small things can upend the establishment. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals. --Alvin Dantes, Chicago Public Library

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Reeves (The Imagination Machine), chairman of the corporate think tank BCG Henderson Institute, and Goodson, founder of the data analytics company Quid, join forces for a stimulating inquiry into the creation and consequences of the "like" button. They trace the button's unlikely path to digital ubiquity, describing how in the mid-2000s, news aggregator Digg.com's distillation of feedback into "digg" and "bury" options foreshadowed the thumbs up/down binary, and how Mark Zuckerberg refused to introduce a like button to Facebook until 2009 because he worried it would undermine his site's share feature. Exploring the like button's neurological effects, Reeves and Goodson note studies finding that both liking someone else's post and receiving likes on social media boosts dopamine levels, which the authors attribute to the evolutionary impulse to share information and reward others who do the same. The authors don't shy from their subject's darker side, lamenting that it enables data brokers to track and sell information on individuals' preferences, and that it may contribute to political polarization by feeding algorithms that create online echo chambers. An extended exploration of the "thumbs up" symbol from Roman gladiators through Siskel and Ebert feels superfluous, but the assessment of how the button affects internet users is nuanced and thought-provoking. Fans of Taylor Lorenz's Extremely Online will enjoy this. (Apr.)

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