The Like button turns a year old today. I’d say that it seems like only yesterday that we were ‘becoming fans’ of things, but that would be a lie – can anyone honestly remember a time before we ‘liked’ our favourite products and services? The Like button in question is sitting at the bottom of this post, waiting you to click it, and ten thousand new websites add the button every single day. That’s a whole lotta likin’ going on. In case you’d like to see what the Like button looks like to FB users around the world (without having to set and reset your language options several dozen times), look on in wonder….

A few years ago, when Facebook broke out of its college ghetto into the mainstream, many people welcomed it with open arms. At the time, it seemed like such a helpful, innocuous thing – it was easy to use and offered a neat, simple way for people to share things with each other. And it’s true: Facebook is a great way for people unfamiliar with the web to get acquainted with it. While uploading photos, videos and one’s general thoughts were once the domain of those a bit more nerdy, Facebook made it simple for anyone to experience the web’s power for both expression and connection. As time went on though,…