facebook now allowing ‘likes’ on comments

As of 30 mins ago facebook released a new feature that will, yet again, change the way we use facebook.  We are now able to ‘like’ comments made by others in a comment thread.

Above anything, this new feature will further continue to strengthen facebooks knowledge around our own personal social graphs as it will be able to start logging the relationship strengths between a 3 person dynamic, rather than a 2 person dynamic (which was what was available before this change).  View a breakdown of this below:

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The three person dynamic

1) The post writer The individual who actually wrote the wall post that comments are being made on.

2) The commenter The individual who commented on the post writers post.

3) The comment liker The individual who ‘liked’ the commenters comment, on the wall post.

Using the data that this type of dynamic will produce is going to allow facebook to gain a new angle into how we associate with our friends, predominantly in terms of which groups of friends are closer than others and what content draws these groups together.

Ultimately, through this change, facebook is allowing you to express more about the social ties you have with your friends – on the flipside, they have opened up yet another channel which will allow them to better understand who you interact with and why.