How To Detect Who Is Online In Facebook?

Can Google detect the number of Facebook Likes a page has?

• If a page has a Facebook Like counter, then the number of Likes is displayed explicitly, although through an Ajax call and not visible in the HTML. Can googlebot "see" this number through some sort of capture of what's visible on the page to a page visitor? Matt Cutts has said that they don't have access to Facebook Share data, but Shares and Likes are a bit different. The Likes number is visible to anyone viewing a page.

• Answer:

  Even if it can, I'm not so sure it really matters to Google. As a measurements and indicators go the Like is fairly flawed. It has no context. It's easy to game (read: inflate the count). The Like count you see isn't necessarily for the page that you're on. Etc. Etc. Etc. The fact is, the Like is highly overrated. It is like the "hit" of the late 90's and early 2000s. Does anyone still count hits? With this in mind, I believe these factors are among the inspirations for Google+. While I'm not here to explore and/or debate the technical difference, I do believe it's safe to say that Google is much more comfortable beinig in control of their own metric than being at the mercy of someone else's flawed one. For example, game the +1 and Google might penalize you in SERPs. If you manipulate FB Likes, what's the penalty? Not a damn thing :) And who wants to build an empire on sand that shift like that? What I'm trying to say is, Google might be doing it, but it's doubtful they're putting a whole lot of algorithmic importance on it.