Like: The Button That Changed the World

A riveting, insider's look at the creation and evolution of the like button, and what it reveals about business, technology, and innovation--and us.

Over seven billion times a day, someone taps a like button.

How could something that came out of nowhere become so ubiquitous and so familiar--and even so addictive? What problem does it solve for people, and why does a "like" feel so good? And by the way, who invented the like button in the first place?

In Like, bestselling author and renowned strategist Martin Reeves and coauthor Bob Goodson--Silicon Valley veteran and participant in the invention of the like button--take readers along on a fascinating quest to find out what's behind the world's friendliest icon. It's a story that starts out as simply as a thumbs-up cartoon but ends up presenting surprises and new mysteries at every turn, some of them as deep as anthropological history and others as speculative as the AI-charged future.

But this isn't just the story of the like button. It's so much more.

Using the origin story and evolution of the like button as a jumping-off point, the authors take readers on a fun and fascinating journey through the world of business, offering smart and surprising insights into technology, innovation, creativity, invention, and even us.

For such a small and unassuming invention to take on such scale and power, it must be tapping into something very, very big.

Martin Reeves is the chairman of the BCG Henderson Institute, BCG's think tank for developing new ideas in business. He is a coauthor of two other HBR Press books: Your Strategy Needs a Strategy (2015) and The Imagination Machine (2021). Martin also shares his ideas and research on business strategy and innovation in articles, podcasts, speeches, and other formats.

Bob Goodson is the president and founder of Quid, a visual analytics company. He has extensive experience working in Silicon Valley, including as part of the founding team at Yelp, where he was employee number one and played a key role in the genesis of the like button.