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.

A riveting, insider's look at the creation and evolution of the like button and what it reveals about innovation, business, and culture--and its profound impact on modern human interaction.

"...an entertaining new book by Martin Reeves and Bob Goodson on the origins of the "like" button." -- The Economist

Over seven billion times a day, someone taps a like button. How could something that came out of nowhere become so ubiquitous--and even so addictive? How did this seemingly ordinary social media icon go from such a small and unassuming invention to something so intuitive and universally understood that it has scaled well beyond its original intent?

This is the story of the like button and how it changed our lives. In Like, bestselling author and renowned strategy expert Martin Reeves and coauthor Bob Goodson--Silicon Valley veteran and one of the originators of the like button--take readers on a quest to uncover the origins of the thumbs-up gesture, how it became an icon on social media, and what's behind its power.

Through insights from key players, including the founders of Yelp, PayPal, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, and FriendFeed, you'll hear firsthand the disorderly, serendipitous process from which the like button was born. It's a story that starts with a simple thumbs-up cartoon but ends up with 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 is much more than the origin story of the like button. Drawing on business and innovation theory, evolutionary biology, social psychology, neuroscience, and other human-centered disciplines, this deeply researched book offers smart and unexpected insights into how this little icon changed our world--and all of us in the process.