Facebook Plunges Again
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Facebook "Like" boxes randomly sprouting baby Facebooks - they're not very cute
We have yet another story of failure. The Facebook "Like box" that's currently inhabiting TechCrunch's sidebar apparently began randomly growing miniature Facebooks on Thursday as users visited the site while logged into the network. All it took to correct the problem was a page refresh, and while there doesn't seem to be any real security risk in this happening (that I know of), it's still pretty ridiculous.
Thanks go out to Cris Pearson for Skitching a screenshot before refreshing the page (like my girlfriend did not do when it happened here).
So far, I've only heard reports of this happening on TechCrunch, but it could be that the Facebook users who visit the site are just the type that notice this sort of thing a bit more than others. With the amount of sites incorporating Facebook's Like button, there's a good chance that this has been happening all over the Web. Now, whether there are actually security issues here or not, I can still see people getting pretty upset about it. I know I don't want Facebook following me around the Internet, bogging down my browser even more than usual. There's also the issue of other people using your computer; they may not be so mischievous that they'll open a new tab just to see if you're logged into Facebook, but they probably wouldn't hesitate to investigate the little microsite that showed up in the sidebar of the tech blog that's open.
What do you think? Is there actually a more serious problem here? Have you experienced this issue? Let us know in the comments.
Comments
9
Subscribe to commentsWillMay 14th 2010 12:43PM
This happened to me when setting this up for our websites. The Like button is an iframe and something causes it to load the webpage it is being called from.
Brian (PC gamer extraordinaire)May 14th 2010 1:22PM
I can simply say, that i do not like this.
I want to be logged into facebook when i am on it, i don't want to be followed everywhere i go, i find it extremely intrusive and arrogant to assume that most people want this.
DeoWulfMay 14th 2010 3:39PM
"like my girlfriend did not do when it happened here"
What a callout! Issues?
Matthew RogersMay 14th 2010 4:13PM
Haha, no issues, I just get my hits in where I can :)
jokermatt999May 14th 2010 4:08PM
I just adblock those frames anyway. They're useless and ugly.
crstffrMay 14th 2010 5:17PM
The Facebook "Like" button is poorly implemented at it's current stage. IFrames? Please. And if you dig into the code, you'll notice that it actually opens another IFrame inside the first IFrame. The "Like" buttons definitely do drag down page performance, and when there is more than one button per page, it can bring older computers to a crawl.
The only great thing about the current implementation is that it can be easily blocked with AdBlock. I wrote up a little how-to for those who would like to never see those buttons again.
Block the Facebook "Like" Button with AdBlock
crstffrMay 14th 2010 5:18PM
Whoops, here's the link:
http://crstffr.tumblr.com/post/578927604/block-facebook-like-button
ZipegMay 14th 2010 6:53PM
There is a security risk (I know it first hand). In order to show FB widget in a frame the website needs to give a cross-site scripting permission to all javascript code initiating in FB domain. This is not that bad to trust FB js code itself which is most likely not malicious, but the moment FB starts to execute javascript code from 3rd party applications (and it may) the situation becomes much more vulnerable. TechChurch does have much of user related privacy sensitive information on it's page, but other sites may (including credit card, mailing address details, ssn and what's not). To me the FB widget on the left says the site might not be secure. Better be safe than sorry. Sidenote: FB widgets are very very slow to load too.
raheelqureshi_qkMay 15th 2010 6:06PM
when i open the facebook many problemz are created on the page sometime my frndz are invisble but actullay my frndz are online nd facebook show that they are offline,