Why Isn't the Like Button Called \"Awesome\"?

Facebook's Like button started life as the Awesome button. That is how the group building it first called it, according to Fast Company's 2022 account, and Leah Pearlman herself wrote in 2016 that she "proposed the idea of the Awesome Button."

Where it started

In 2007, Pearlman pitched a one-click reply on Facebook's internal ideas board. The aim was to replace the pile of "Congrats!" and "Nice!" comments that popular posts collected. Justin Rosenstein was among the people who helped build it. TechCrunch reported in 2010 that engineer Tom Whitnah said "no word could be more awesome than Awesome", so the builders reportedly loved the name.

Why it changed

Reports say Mark Zuckerberg wasn't sold. The AP says winning him over took nearly two years. The reasons he gave differ from one source to the next, so this page doesn't pick one. Fast Company says he preferred "like" to "awesome". TechCrunch calls Like the "more bland" word. Who first proposed the word Like is also told differently, so we don't claim to know.

The button shipped as Like on 9 February 2009. (TechCrunch's 2010 piece says 2008, but four later sources say 2009.)

Which name would you have picked?

• Team Awesome: more energy, and it was the builders' choice.
• Team Like: plainer, and it fits almost anything, from a recipe to bad news.

The facts can't settle that one. It's your call.

Sources

• The Ringer, "How the Like Button Took Over the Internet", 2017: https://www.theringer.com/2017/02/15/tech/how-the-like-button-took-over-the-internet-ebe778be2459
• TechCrunch, "Facebook's 'Like' Button Used To Be The 'Awesome' Button", 2010: https://techcrunch.com/?p=228346
• AP via Fortune, 2025-05-16: https://fortune.com/2025/05/16/like-button-facebook-zuckerberg-hated-it-so-much
• Fast Company (Will Oremus), 2022: https://fastcompanyme.com/technology/the-inside-story-of-how-facebook-designed-the-like-button-and-made-social-media-into-a-popularity-contest/
• Leah Pearlman, DailyGood, 2016: https://www.dailygood.org/story/1444/do-you-like-me-do-i-/
• New Statesman, 2015-10-09: https://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/2015/10/cursed-project-short-history-facebook-button

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