Facebook Like button to expand to Read, Watch, Listen

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Internet

Facebook's "Read, Watch, Listen" theme of its f8 developer event, happening tomorrow, apparently now involves altering the "Like" button to specific actions.

In other words, "read," "watch" and "listen" will be applied to the "Like" button. The result? Buttons that will allow you to indicated that you have "Read" books or articles, "Listened," to music, or "Watched" videos or other content.

So far, multiple reports have confirmed the "Read, Watch, Listen" theme, including TechCrunch, AllThingsD, and others. One industry source has also confirmed the theme to us, although the source said he wasn't sure if that was going to be an official motto, or just the substance of the talk.

TechCrunch is the source of the reports that claim that the buttons will be rebranded, however. A "Want" button might also appear. The New York Times has also reported that the site will launch a media-sharing service for movies, music, and other content at the F8 developer conference.

Facebook has already confirmed that it is rolling out a real-time ticker and an updated News feed, which will surface more relevant content to the user. You'll see the top photos and statuses that were added in your absence, marked by a blue "Top Story" corner on the top left. If you sign in more frequently, the news feed will feature most recent stories first. Photos will also be bigger.

Facebook also confirmed three speakers for an F8 session on digital music: Bob Pittman, the chairman of Clear Channel, Daniel Ek, the chief executive of Spotify, and Troy Carter, the chairman and chief executive of Atom Factory, which represents artists like Lady Gaga, among others. That appears to confirm the reports of the so-called "Facebook Music" portion of the platform, which companies like Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody and others are participating in.

While Facebook hasn't tipped the products it will launch at the show, it will be answering questions on "Location and Events," "Photos," News Feed," "Distribution," "Profile," "Pages," "Social Plugins," and "Credits," according to an agenda of the show.

This article, written by Mark Hachman, originally appeared on PCMag.com and is republished on Gear Live with the permission of Ziff Davis, Inc.