Coming to Facebook: a 'Sympathize' Button?

Not sure what to do when a friend puts news of a break-up or a bad day on Facebook? There's no "Dislike" button in the cards, but the company is looking into another way to expand the range of responses people can make to friends' posts, the Huffington Post reports. At one of its periodic "hackathons," engineers came up with the idea of a "Sympathize" button people can use when friends have sad news to share and the "Like" button would be inappropriate.

The idea was for users to be given a list of emotions when they posted a status, and for the "Like" option to be changed to "Sympathize" when "sad" or "depressed" was selected, the San Francisco Chronicle explains. A Facebook engineer says that while the idea was a big hit at the hackathon, the firm has decided now is "not exactly the right time to launch that product." But many other ideas that surfaced at hackathons have already become part of the site—including the "Like" button itself. (More Facebook stories.)