Showyoulike.it aims to make 'liking' more social

A new start-up makes a Facebook action more appealing and interactive

I haven't always been an early adopter. I wasn't waiting to see how others received a new technology or service, I just usually wasn't the first person to hear about it.

A new Facebook-based service called Showyoulike.it has officially launched and is meant to help people with common interests (or Facebook 'likes') connect and learn about other things they might also like.

The Belgian start-up released its free social networking service Wednesday -- and all it takes to sign up is a Facebook profile.

"There are several ways to use the site," said Showyoulike.it CEO and founder Philippe Palaz, in an interview with me. "If you already have your profile set up the way you want it, Showyoulike.it becomes your own personalized page, with all of your favorite things online."

Palaz told me that when he started the company in March, the service set out to be a 'sexy' platform that caters to bloggers, journalists, musicians, and those looking to increase their public exposure. 

How it works

The service asks for permission to access your Facebook information.

Then you are given the option of choosing a private or public profile. Private profiles will only allow your 'likes' to be visible with people you are already Facebook friends with. Public profiles allow you to follow non-Facebook friends and have new people see and follow your 'likes.'

Once you have created a profile, you can then see if any of your Facebook friends are signed up with the service and, if so, you can see what common 'likes' you have. 

There are also options to search popular 'likes' that can be organized by gender, age, or category. 

The platform is very user-friendly and visually appealing with large tiles denoting the person, service or product that people like and when you scroll over it, you can see the title of the item and how many people on Facebook like the item too.

Showmeyoulike.it suggests that its service is a great way to search and fill out your various likes.

I went ahead and scanned the popular items and added more likes -- and in real time these changes were updated on my Facebook profile 'Info' section.

One of the limitations that the service has is that a person has to be signed up for the service for to appear in searches or be 'followed' but the platform already has more than 250,000 profiles, 7 million likes and 1.7 million items in the database.

So far none of my friends are on the service so I had to set my profile to public and start following other people to see the capabilities and increase the number of suggestions the platform offered me.

I was also suprised that when I clicked on an item I was re-directed to the Facebook page rather than staying on the site.  This is good for the individual fan pages but not great for Showyoulike.it since the user could then navigate on Facebook rather than on the outside platform.

What is the potential

With a very usable and visually appealing interface and the addictive nature of finding more and more things that you do, in fact, like to add to your database there is potential for people to find fun in this. 

On the down side, this could easily be integrated into the Facebook platform and therefore runs the risk of garnering the attention of the social stronghold -- if it becomes too popular it would be easy for Facebook to offer the same service.

At the moment the service is free and currently has no advertising, it is clear that whatever revenue model is planned, was not there upon launch -- but there could be promising opportunities. 

Because it is updated in a matter of seconds, there is a great chance to see if a particular television show, artist or other activity is gaining traction -- or trending. 

Palaz said that the company was bootstrapped and the next step is to integrate G+ in their algorithm. With each social network they are able to integrate, the value of the service would improve. Other future opportunities, according to Palaz, include partnering with brands to offer contests with brands that you like.

"A lot of features are foreseen, but not yet implemented," Palaz told me. "Such as a like advisor, press share, video share, contests to win the music you like."

As many people learned over the last year, liking an item on Facebook is tantamount to getting on their mailing list since they automatically become integrated into your homepage feed. This has been a key marketing tool for many companies, brands and services. If there is a way to track how many likes came from Showyoulike.it and for which products there could be incentives tied in. Or, like Twitter, sponsored 'likes' and services could prove to be lucrative. Until then, it just seems to be a fun add-on to Facebook activities.