How can I access "facebook likes" data for my application?

i,

This is what I want to do: I have a webstore which contains various products. Against each product I want to add the “facebook like” bookmarking function.

What I then would like to do is allow users to sort products by the number of “facebook likes”.

Is this a feasible possibility and if so how would you best accomplish it?

I know that you can add the facebook like function direct, or you could use something like “add this” - would either / both provide a possible solution to do this?

What would your suggestions be?

Thanks

The most direct way I’ve seen is simply to maintain a database of LIKES for your products by url.

You can retrieve this through the Facebook API hourly / daily / weekly by connecting to the link_stat attribute as explained at link_stat - Facebook Developers

I would also suggest using the FB button directly. People recognize it and it’s a single click versus a combination function which they don’t know, have to open up and are ucnertain what functionality will happen when they do so.