Universal 'Like' Button

Facebook is a bloated, invasive mess which ultimately offers little useful functionality other than that of an online address book. For all my criticisms however (and I have many, many criticisms) the one thing Zuckerberg and his band of little wizards did get right is the 'Like' button.

Yes I know that Facebook have a mechanism whereby a user can 'Like' something on a third-party website, but on more than one occasion I've found myself instinctively looking for a 'Like' button at the bottom of an amusing email from a friend. There is no 'Like' button in my email client. None.

What I propose is a Universal 'Like' Button completely divorced from Facebook. A universal approval standard that can be used in any area of computing, from websites to email to - conceivably - the level of individual bits of data passing through your system. You could like a single binary 0 as it passes through your CPU.

And why stop with computing? Yes, I've seen those 'hilarious' physical 'Like' statuettes that you can put on someone's desk because (ha ha!) you 'Like' their desk. Balls to statuettes, let's have a free-floating 'Like' button that you can conjure up, waft into the air before you using some mysterious projection mechanism and prod into action with your fat, toffee-covered fingers. "LOOK DEREK I HAVE LIKED THAT THING YOU JUST SAID. I HAVE MADE A BUTTON APPEAR AND I HAVE PRESSED THE BUTTON AND THAT MEANS I LIKE THE THING YOU JUST SAID THERE." you would say, frantically waving your stupid hands around and dancing excitedly from foot to foot.

It is universal. It is a button. It says 'Like' on it. That is it.