Likes vs. Saves

Many social networks are adding "Save" in addition to "Like". You can see this now on both Instagram and Facebook. You can "like" something and tell the publisher of the content that you like what they published and you can also "save" the post (presumably to find it later).

Mature content publishing platforms need both of these features. They shouldn’t only have "Like" and force their communities to use that as a way to find something later. For years I’ve used Likes on Twitter to save things for later. If they only pick one they should go with "save".

Jack Baty takes this one step further and says that likes should be private:

Likes should be visible to only the Like-or and the Like-ee. Liking something is a simple, unobtrusive way to let someone know I appreciate what they wrote. It’s also a way to get a little bump when someone likes what I wrote. No one else need be involved.

I totally agree.