No! Facebook has not introduced the Unlike button for status updates. Rather, they have added an “Unlike Page” button for news feed, which allows users to opt-out of receiving unwanted messages from pages they had previously said they “liked”.
Clicking on the small “X” button next to any update from a Facebook Page will list the regular options, “Hide this post,” “Hide all by [page],” “Hide all by [app]” and “Mark as spam,” but also a new “Unlike Page” option.
As a matter of fact this is a pretty small update, hence Facebook rolled it out silently, but on the hindsight, it implies the acceptance of dislike or unlike an update (in this case a news feed) by the folks at Facebook.
It’s a welcome addition really. It puts pressure on Pages to not send spammy, irrelevant, or too many updates, as it has become really easy for the user to unlike the page and stop being a fan.
When an user clicks on “Unlike Page” option, a pop-up box appears asking if you really want to remove your connection to the page entirely. The user has to click “Remove Post and Unlike” in order to opt out from seeing any more messages from that page going forward.
InsideFacebook notes that the Unlike button is also available on feed and activity stories published by Open Graph objects. Now users can Unlike an object from their feed or wall, preventing them from having to leave Facebook to visit and Unlike the URL. We can now hope to see a “dislike” button for all news feeds including the status updates. Don’t you want to see that?
Raju PP is the founder-editor of Technically Personal. He holds an Engineering degree in Electronics & Communication, and has previously worked as a Technical Specialist in Banking Software domain.
