SAN FRANCISCO-
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg wants people to be able to quickly express broader ranges of feelings at the leading online social network, but a “dislike” button doesn’t make the cut.
During a question-and-answer session with an audience at the Facebook headquarters in Northern California, available online Friday, Zuckerberg gave a thumbs-down to the idea of a button to register disdain for posts at the social network.
“That’s not something that we think is good for the world,” Zuckerberg said, expressing concern that “like” and “dislike” buttons could turn into a voting system to judge posts.
“The thing that I think is very valuable is that there are more sentiments that people want to express.”
While Facebook’s well-known thumbs-up “like” buttons let people easily show support or enthusiasm for posts, some folks think the sentiment seems off-target for somber subjects such as news of death or other sadness in the lives of friends.
“We are talking about a right way for people to easily express a broader array of emotions,” Zuckerberg said, giving examples such as empathy, surprise, or laughter.
No changes along those lines were on the immediate horizon.
“We need to figure out the right way to do it so that it is a force for good and not a force for bad in demeaning the posts that people are putting out there.”
Facebook would also risk irking advertisers by giving members a quick way to tag marketing messages with “dislikes,” according to analysts.
Zuckerberg noted that Facebook members are free to comment on posts, but can wind up feeling pressured to be witty or insightful.
Facebook dumps Microsoft Web search results
Facebook Inc has stopped including results from Microsoft Corp’s Bing search engine on its social networking site.
The move, confirmed by a company spokesperson, comes as Facebook has revamped its own search offerings, introducing a tool on Monday that allows users to quickly find past comments and other information posted by their friends on Facebook.
The decision may reflect the increasing importance that Facebook sees in Web search technology, a market dominated by rival Google Inc.
Searches on Facebook have long been geared toward helping users connect with friends and to find other information that exists within the walls of the 1.35 billion-user social networking service. But for years, Facebook’s search results also included links to standalone websites that were provided by Bing.
“We’re not currently showing web search results in Facebook Search because we’re focused on helping people find what’s been shared with them on Facebook,” a company spokesperson told a foreign news agency.
“We continue to have a great partnership with Microsoft in lots of different areas.”
Microsoft was not immediately available for comment.
