New Facebook Buttons: Read, Watched, Listened

Facebook is taking its "Like" concept to the next level, and will launch new buttons—Read, Listened, and Watched—at its developer conference this week, a source tells TechCrunch. The buttons will appear on users' walls, allowing them to proclaim that they Read, Listened, or Watched content in their news feed. Other buttons, including Want, will follow. Rumors had been swirling that something big was coming at the f8 conference, but until now those rumors had mostly focused on the social networking site’s upcoming social music service.

Facebook will likely use the data to provide a more personalized experience for users and to auto-populate the News Feed based on users’ interests, but of course, the company can also use it for ad targeting and to offer segmented data to businesses. Though the report comes from a source, and not directly from Facebook, it’s worth noting that All Things D recently reported the motto for this year’s conference, and it is ... “Read. Watch. Listen.” (More Facebook stories.)