It seems that Facebook is planning to roll out its “like” button to the rest of the web, offering other sites the ability to boast a little more Facebook integration.

Facebook is fast becoming a Google level of scary

It’s an interesting move, and one that could well strengthen Facebook’s position as a practical filter through which people access web content. Indeed, statistics have already shown that some sites see significantly more traffic from Facebook than from search engines, as people are more likely to visit content that’s been shared by a friend using Facebook’s “share” button (which content producers can already add to their own pages to encourage interaction across the social network).

Still, despite the fact that the “share” button has been doing the rounds for a long while already, the introduction of a global “like” button, to be made available across the web is very interesting stuff indeed. According to TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, the move is “likely part of Facebook’s Open Graph API project that will incentivise third party sites to interact deeply with Facebook by sharing content and associated metadata.”

If nothing else, the “like” button, tied to individual users’ Facebook profiles is likely to work out a bit better for all concerned than the option to share content does at the moment. The fact is that the “share” button clogs up everyone’s stream fairly quickly if you know a few people who indulge in less than judicious use of it.

By contrast, a universal “like” button added to a page gives an impression of how many people have enjoyed the content without clogging anyone’s stream. Users can then check friends’ pages for things they’ve recently “liked,” meaning the content can still be shared around fairly easily.