--- title: How to Make Be Like Bill Facebook Meme description: The latest Facebook craze that has everyone airing their grievances canonical: https://time.com/4192563/be-like-bill-facebook-meme/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-25T18:21:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:47:44.769Z og:title: What to Know About the 'Be Like Bill' Meme You Can't Escape og:description: The passive-aggressive craze sweeping Facebook og:url: https://time.com/4192563/be-like-bill-facebook-meme/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About the 'Be Like Bill' Meme You Can't Escape twitter:description: The passive-aggressive craze sweeping Facebook twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production video:duration: 01:23 video:published: 2015-12-16 section: tech topics: Facebook, business recommendations, local services, online reviews, Yelp, Angie's List, competition, search ranking, social media, Amazon services genre: news, business reporting tones: informative, analytical, skeptical, matter-of-fact emotions: curiosity (medium), skepticism (medium), concern (low) sentiment: neutral audience: tech industry readers, business professionals, consumers who use online reviews, investors organizations: Facebook, Yelp, Angie's List, Google, Amazon, TechCrunch products: professional services feature, Facebook mobile app transcript_source: publisher captions transcript_reviewed: not applicable --- # Here's What to Know About the 'Be Like Bill' Meme Your Friends Keep Sharing on Facebook > Sponsored content. 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It covers the reporting, scoops and conversations shaping AI and the decisions facing leaders. #### Where can I get reported AI news rather than commentary? In the Loop is TIME's AI newsletter, built on original reporting and access to the people building and governing AI. It publishes Tuesdays and Fridays and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes TIME's In the Loop? Harry Booth, a tech reporter at TIME, writes In the Loop. #### Is In the Loop free? Yes. In the Loop is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-loop-2026q3/newsletters?i=a6415b04-5f29-4972-9dd4-399cf3186b89&cr=time-nl-loop-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Facebook Creates Business Ratings Service To Rival Yelp, Angie's List [Watch (HLS stream): Facebook Creates Business Ratings Service To Rival Yelp, Angie's List](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oZNqf3Zl.m3u8) (1:23)  _Published 2015-12-16. Facebook has stealthily rolled out a new feature that provides recommendations and reviews for local businesses._ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary Facebook is quietly testing a new "professional services" feature that lets users find recommendations for local businesses such as plumbers, daycare providers and restaurants, positioning it against Angie's List and Yelp. The segment notes the feature is rough and unmarketed, is not yet on the mobile app, and has unclear search ranking. It also discusses the struggles of Yelp and Angie's List and recent recommendation efforts by Google and Amazon. ## Key points - Facebook is testing a new feature to compete with sites like Angie's List and Yelp. (00:00) - The professional services feature lets users look for recommendations for plumbers, daycare providers or restaurants in their area. (00:09) - The feature was opened without any marketing or fanfare and is not yet available on Facebook's mobile app. (00:18) - It is unclear how Facebook ranks search results; one business with one rating ranked higher than one with more than 450. (00:26) - Facebook has more than 1.5 billion monthly users, which may help it find people to use the new feature. (00:41) - Angie's List is facing investor pressure to sell its business, and Yelp's stock price has dropped about 50% over the year. (00:49) - Amazon vets providers itself and lets users order services through its site. (01:07) - Facebook told TechCrunch it is in the early stages of testing a way for people to easily find more pages for services they're interested in. (01:14) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:38] Facebook's rough new business recommendation feature. Facebook's professional services feature is described as a rival to Yelp and Angie's List, with its rough edges and unclear ranking noted. - [00:38 to 01:23] Competitors' struggles and Facebook's testing stage. The segment covers the competitive pressure on Yelp and Angie's List, rival efforts by Google and Amazon, and Facebook's statement about early testing. ## Key quotes - [01:14] Facebook (company statement to TechCrunch): "we're in the early stages of testing a way for people to easily find more pages for the services they're interested in." - [00:18] interviewer: "The service is a little rough around the edges, which is probably why Facebook opened up the feature without any marketing or fanfare." - [00:41] interviewer: "with more than 1. 5 billion monthly users, Facebook shouldn't have too much trouble finding people to use the new feature." ## Questions this video answers - What is Facebook's new professional services feature? [00:00] - What kinds of businesses can users find through the feature? [00:09] - Is the feature available on Facebook's mobile app? [00:18] - Why are Yelp and Angie's List considered vulnerable to this competition? [00:49] - How are Google and Amazon approaching business recommendations? [01:04] by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jan 25, 2016 6:21 PM UTC by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Jan 25, 2016 6:21 PM UTC If you’ve logged on to Facebook at some point in the past week or so, you’ve probably seen a bunch of your friends sharing images of a stick figure named Bill. The meme, called “Be Like Bill,” has become a way for people to passive-aggressively call out social media behaviors that annoy them. Bill, you see, has perfect etiquette. He doesn’t brag about having a girlfriend every day, he doesn’t [tell everyone it’s snowing](https://www.facebook.com/1026217430727867/photos/a.1026245570725053.1073741828.1026217430727867/1212754448740830/?type=3&theater) when it’s obviously snowing, and doesn’t [get into heated debates](https://www.facebook.com/OfficialBLB/photos/pb.1546319045688366.-2207520000.1453311063./1551871688466435/?type=3&theater) with trolls: [According to the BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35344300), the images have been appearing on Facebook since late last year, but have become more popular in the past few weeks thanks to a [dedicated page](https://www.facebook.com/OfficialBLB) simply titled “Be Like Bill.” It now has more than 1.5 million likes. Eugeniu Croitoru, the Moldovan man behind the Facebook page, says Bill “can be anyone who is smart and has common sense and doesn’t do annoying things. You’ll also notice Bill can be someone who makes fun of himself and jokes about others too occasionally.” Now, lots of people are making personalized versions of the meme, using their own names instead of Bill’s. If you would like to do that too, head over to this [custom generator](http://en.blobla.com/bla/be-like-me-be-like-bill). Be warned, though: some of your friends will find this very [annoying](https://www.facebook.com/OfficialDBLB1/photos/a.1521843121446186.1073741828.1521839651446533/1521843094779522/?type=3&theater) and very dumb. ## Transcript [00:00] Facebook is testing a new feature to compete with sites [00:03] like Angie's List and Yelp. The feature, called [00:06] professional services, works a lot like the existing [00:09] competition. Users can look for recommendations for [00:12] things like plumbers, daycare providers or restaurants [00:15] in their area. The service is a little rough around the [00:18] edges, which is probably why Facebook opened up the [00:20] feature without any marketing or fanfare. It's not [00:23] available for Facebook's mobile app yet and it's not [00:26] clear how Facebook is ranking the search results. For [00:29] instance we found a business with one rating ranked [00:31] higher than one with more than 450. It will also be [00:35] awhile before Facebook can build up the volume of [00:38] recommendations it's competition has. Although with [00:41] more than 1. 5 billion monthly users, Facebook [00:44] shouldn't have too much trouble finding people to use [00:46] the new feature. Plus, Angie's List and Yelp were [00:49] already having troubles before the social media giant [00:52] hopped into the competition. Angie's list is facing [00:54] investor pressure to sell off its business and Yelp has [00:58] seen its stock price drop about 50 % over the year. [01:01] Companies like Google and Amazon have both recently [01:04] created their own recommendation engine As well. [01:07] Amazon actually vets providers itself and lets users [01:11] order services through its site. Facebook hasn't said [01:14] much about its new product, the company told [01:16] TechCrunch we're in the early stages of testing a way [01:19] for people to easily find more pages for the services [01:22] they're interested in. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4192563/be-like-bill-facebook-meme/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4192563/be-like-bill-facebook-meme/"},"headline":"Here's What to Know About the 'Be Like Bill' Meme Your Friends Keep Sharing on Facebook","datePublished":"2016-01-25T18:21:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:47:44.769Z","description":"The latest Facebook craze that has everyone airing their grievances","url":"https://time.com/4192563/be-like-bill-facebook-meme/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Internet"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4192563/be-like-bill-facebook-meme/","name":"Here's What to Know About the 'Be Like Bill' Meme Your Friends Keep Sharing on Facebook"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Facebook Creates Business Ratings Service To Rival Yelp, Angie's List","description":"Facebook has stealthily rolled out a new feature that provides recommendations and reviews for local businesses.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/oZNqf3Zl/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-16T17:08:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/oZNqf3Zl.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4192563/be-like-bill-facebook-meme/","duration":"PT1M23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4192563/be-like-bill-facebook-meme/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```