Facebook testing ‘Want’ button plugin
Facebook appears to be testing a new “Want” button plugin similar to its popular Like button. — Developer Tom Waddington from Cut Out + Keep discovered that a Want button has been added to the Facebook Javascript SDK as an XFBML tag - <fb:wants>.
Context & Ripple Effects
Facebook built its off-site social layer around the Like button’s expansion across the web and then added more publishing paths for Like activity. The appearance of an unconfirmed <fb:wants> tag in the JavaScript SDK suggests the company is examining whether that one-button model can capture a more specific kind of user intent.
Because the evidence is an SDK discovery rather than a product announcement, the immediate significance is for developers watching Facebook’s plugin surface, not a confirmed rollout to users.
First-order effects
- Third-party developers gain an early signal that Facebook may add a second standardized social action alongside Like, although Facebook has not confirmed that the plugin will launch.
- If activated, a Want action would give Facebook a distinct intent signal rather than treating every endorsement as a Like.
Second-order effects
- Sites already using Facebook’s Like integrations would have to decide whether a Want control adds enough value to justify another on-page social prompt.
- The move would make Facebook’s external-plugin strategy less dependent on a single, broad interaction, building on its earlier effort to publish more kinds of Like activity.
Third-order effects
- If Facebook turns SDK-level experiments into durable plugins, off-site buttons may evolve from simple distribution tools into a broader system for collecting differentiated signals about user preferences.
- That would shift the competitive value of social plugins toward the quality and specificity of the interaction data they return, rather than button placement alone.
The trend: Facebook is testing whether its web-wide Like infrastructure can be extended from broad endorsement to more specific expressions of intent.