One of the most memorable features on Facebook is the “poke”. What is it? What does it mean? Well honestly, we don’t think that anyone knows other than the Facebook team.
Poking someone is a way of saying “Hi”, or a way of saying “You’re cute”, or a way of saying “Hey I haven’t heard from you in a really really long time!”. It’s whatever you want it to be really. I’ve always thought of it as a fun turn-based game.
As we gear up for F8, there have been some changes to Facebook, and this is one that All Facebook haspicked up on.
The “poke” as it were, has also stood for something significant at Facebook for some time. Fun. College fun. Relaxed, unlike a professional social network like LinkedIn.
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The poke has now been quietly hidden on user profiles. It’s now in a dropdown all the way on the right hand side. That most certainly makes it less of a focal point when starting to interact with someone.
Are we seeing a departure from this fun nature pokey poke economy of friendship?
We’ve never had access to “poke data”, meaning who we’ve poked, or who have poked us. I’ve always wondered if it had anything to do with the algorithm that shows you closest friends.
Either way, do you poke on Facebook? Will you poke less now that it’s buried?
Story byDrew Olanoff
Drew Olanoff was The Next Web’s West Coast Editor. He coined the phrase “Social Good” and invented the “donation by action” model for onlin(show all)Drew Olanoff was The Next Web’s West Coast Editor. He coined the phrase “Social Good” and invented the “donation by action” model for online charitable movements. He founded #BlameDrewsCancer. You can follow him onTwitter,Google+,Facebook, or emaildrew@thenextweb.com
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