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Why facebook will never have a dislike button

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Facebook survives because of its efforts to improve the quality of relationships and interactivity among users. This is bound by a very fragile thread and can be easily damaged with stupid features like a “dislike button”. Here is what I think.

facebook-dislike-button
Image credit: TechDigest

Facebook has been successful mainly because of its ability to connect people and suggest users to make relations possible, even with strangers.

What makes a social network really “the best” is the way it handles and promotes conversations, and hence establishing relationship among users.

What makes a dislike button really inappropriate? Well, let’s face it. Facebook doesn’t trust its users. The chances of a dislike button being misused are very high. Internet trolls, haters, accidental dislikes, pay-to-dislike-a-post, etceteras are only a handful of examples how the button can be abused. This will discourage conversations among users.

If you like something on a social network, you can choose to like/ up-vote it. If you don’t agree with something, you can simply write in a comment expressing your disagreement. If more people agree with your disagreement, they’re likely to put a like on your comment. This get’s a conversation going and opinions are shared. Conversations make a social network SOCIAL.

Introducing one sloppy feature like a dislike button can quickly destroy the integrity of Facebook. It would be asocial.

If Bing is copying Google, then Yahoo is copying Google too!

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Lets not forget the recent revelation of yet another idea stealing attempt by Microsoft also applies to Yahoo.

Not very recently, Yahoo! and Microsoft entered into a deal where Microsoft’s Bing will be the search engine for all Yahoo! websites. This deal has been agreed to continue for 10 years from the date. Now, very recently Google accused Bing of copying their search results, Microsoft rubbished this claim and in response, Google backed their claim with valid statements. Bing was busted. Google thinks of one possibility being that Microsoft has been monitoring the user behaviour and modifying it’s search results accordingly with it’s toolbar on the user’s computer. Google finds this unethical because they spend a significant amount of money, time on R&D to construct and improve their search engine’s capability.

So, what does this point to? This means Yahoo! search may also be consciously or unconsciously copying the search results from Google because of the fact that it’s search algorithm is primarily being powered by Bing.

google-vs-microsoft-bing-vs-yahoo
A comical illustration

The following statement from Yahoo! – Microsoft deal’s press release has a lot to say about this,
Microsoft’s Bing will be the exclusive algorithmic search and paid search platform for Yahoo! sites. Yahoo! will continue to use its technology and data in other areas of its business such as enhancing online advertising technology.

SearchEngineJournal posted an article stating how Google backed up it’s claims, Amit Singhal, the Google Fellow who’s backing up the accusations, runs us through the entire story. It starts with the term “tarsorrhaphy,” a surgical procedure that almost no one knows about — and that Google was the first to find the common misspellings for. While Google queries for the misspelled word returned the typical smug “didn’t you mean” suggestion, Bing seemed to be lifting the top Google result without bothering to give the corrected spelling.

However, this was just the start. Google reps started looking at the query results from Bing, focusing on both common and bizarre terms to get a sense of the field. The definite trend was that the top Google result, even when it was “something [Google] would consider mistakes of our algorithms,” was displayed as the top Bing result.

Things really start to point toward one of the reasons behind Yahoo! – Bing’s search deal. Does this mean both giants had a meticulous plan to fight against Google Search’s success by striking such deal in the name of research and innovation?

Jetlev Flyer – The Water Powered JetPack

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The water powered jet pack is ready for sale. It has the performance capability of upto 2 straight hours on a single tank. Sadly, it’s not built to fly around the city, but you can still have fun on and hovering above the water.

A man suited with Jetlev Flyer

Raymond Li, a Canadian inventor has ingeniously came up with a new type of jet pack that runs on water and can be sold commercially and very well used for adventure oriented fun. Jetlev can successfully hover 28ft above the water level speeding upto 22 miles/ 35 km per hour.

Jetlev is actually a combination of a jet pack connected to a speed boat like unit loaded with a 250 horse power motor and a pump that constantly supplies water to the jetpack. The official website for Jetlev has mentioned some pointers the wannabe users need to be aware of:

  • You must be a good swimmer, and should not feel uncomfortable having your face in the water from time to time.
  • You should not have a fear of heights.
  • You should be in good health and physical condition.
  • You should have no history of any heart conditions and flying is not advised for women who are pregnant.
  • You must also have good vision and be able to understand the instructor.
  • You must be atleast 18 years old.

These limitations seem fair and what you would usually find tagged with almost all kinds of adventure sports. And yes, it’s an expensive machine. The website mentions the water powered propeller being available for 129.000,00 €/ $100,000 exclusively on a waiting list of orders and can be rented on ‘certain’ resorts.