Facebook: Social Widgets versus Share

Question

Hello all,

I am interested in people's thoughts on Facebook's new social widgets thing. Most notably the new "Like" button. The concept I am struggling with is the difference between "Like" and "Share".

I have an existing Connect application. This application has its own fan page on Facebook. People can become "Fans" of the page and register to receive email updates and the like. The application is currently programmed to update its own fan page any time content is added to the site.

Enter Social Widgets and "Like". People who visit our site can currently "share" our content on Facebook. With "Share" they can post a full item to their wall with a comment or send the content item as a message to another Facebook user. "Like" seems to do the same thing minus the message part. However "Like" automatically subscribes people to the fan page.

My question is simply, should I add "Like" to my existing Connect site? Is "Like" different than what I already have? Are Social Widgets the future of Connect?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The most clear distinction I can see is in the intent - Social Plugins seem to be made more for content which is not a "full" Facebook Connect application. However, they may very well make the need (and the burden of additional authorization) of Facebook Connect applications become much less common.