Great article.  The word "like" is taking over the English language, at least here in the US.  When my teenage daughter is speaking to her friends, it is not much of an exaggeration to say that 60% of their speech content is the word "like" repeated over and over, with a few other words randomly sprinkled in.  All this is fine and good I suppose...English evolves whether we "like" it or not.  Just a small caution to folks learning English.  In job interviews and other high-stakes conversations, I would be very careful with the informal usages of "like" that Chris describes so accurately.  More than a few times, colleagues of mine (in the 40-50 year-old range) have cited the excessive use of the word "like" as a reason for dropping candidates from consideration.  If you drink, drink responsibly.  Same thing here.  If you "like" a lot, "like" responsibly!