Likester: The Global Popularity Engine

We are always interested to know what others like. This curiosity helps to be in the know and to ensures that we don’t fall behind the rest of the world, or so we think. The hypothesis is particularly true when it comes to following popular people. From fashion to health tips, people go gaga when they learn something from the coolest kids in the block.

Thanks to the advent of Social Media, it’s never been easier to keep in touch or follow people you like. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of data available today, so you will need apps like Likester that help you stay always on top of the hot happenings in real time. Does the app has what it takes to be the Global popularity engine it claims to be? We sure are going to check that claim out!

Overview

Likester helps you understand what people like, by collaborating the things you and others have liked on Facebook. This includes your friends, your neighbors, and people you’ve never met from across the street or around the world. Just like everyone else who signs up for an account, you contribute your anonymous data (what you like), in exchange for seeing what everyone else likes.

Since what you have liked on Facebook is already available publicly, you’re not giving up any of your privacy to gain access to the data. Likester has only one way to sign up for the app – using your existing Facebook account. This way, you don’t have to create another account, and Likester can automatically find the things you’ve already liked. The internet would be a better place, if other app makers follow suit with such simple signup processes. Bless your souls Team Likester!

Ease of Use

Once you join the rather bland user interface design might surprise you. Likester has a bunch of tabs at the top. By navigating through these tabs, you can ascertain the likes of various groups. Since we are accustomed to tabs in almost all apps we use on a daily basis, the app is more intuitive to navigate.

My Likes

As the name suggests, this section is a compilation of all the things you have liked in Facebook so far. All likes are accompanied by their profile pics and a description to go with it. You can either vote up or down a listing too. I particularly liked the number of global likes an item you personally like has received and the timestamp showing when exactly you liked it. The section isn’t read only – if you don’t like a certain item any more just unlike it from the app itself.

Another interesting feature here are the lists. Based on the likes, Likester puts together a list of related items just like in Amazon or IMDB. The variety of genre covered by these lists are comprehensive and refreshing.

Friends

Friends influence our lives a lot and Likester helps you to see which items your friends like the most. When you click on the Friends tab, all the likes from your friends circle along with the overall likes each item has got is displayed. Now, that isn’t all. Where the web app scores is in the way one can filter out the likes based on the categories they belong to.

So, if you are in the mood for a movie and are looking for a recommendation, just use the drop down and explore the Entertainment section. Another important filtration aspect is drilling down likes by friends, country, state or city. Inclusion of a map to narrow dowm results by geography is a nice touch indeed.

From Everyone

By now, you should know what will be showcased in the Everyone tab. The tab shows you the most popular items on Facebook, from all users, across the globe. The same discovery and search options from the Friends tab can be executed here too.

Trending Items

Just like the trending topics on Twitter, from this tab, you can keep an eye on what people are really interested in right now. These trends are from across the globe and aren’t limited to your friends circle.

You can share these trending items with your friends or like them yourself on Facebook. Alternatively you can create a list of related items or add them to an already existing list.

Lists & Reports

Lists are fun to a take a look at. Since the number of lists available is a bit low (and almost all of them look like they have been created by the founders), I would suggest the development team should add more soon as this might end up being a major attraction to Likester. Since every tab and listing carries an option to create a new list or edit a new one, the number should increase over time.

Reports is another mighty nice feature and lists all the things your friends liked in chronological order. It’s like a detailed log and as the developers mention in the page, Facebook doesn’t display all of them and some might be drowned in the flood of updates.

Final Thoughts

Likester is an app with great potential. It’s an app that can help businesses and individuals to mine the social graph. The simple design works in favor of the web app for the most part. But at times, I keep wondering if the app would be more engaging to use if there is a bit more eye candy. I wish the developers add some gloss to the rather bland interface. Personally, I truly believe that Likester has a bright future as, unlike Twitter, there aren’t a lot of third party web apps tapping into the Facebook data.

Share Your Thoughts!

How useful do you think Likester will be? Will you change your lifestyle decisions based on social aggregators like these? Or will you perhaps check it out just to find a new movie or show to watch, even if you wouldn’t use it all the time?