Can you find a poke button on Facebook?
Facebook has quietly tucked this feature into a pull-down menu in the right-hand corner of profiles.
The label for this menu consists only of a gear icon and a down arrow.
I first noticed this change around the time of the subscribe button, but suspect it actually may have kicked in with Facebook’s creation of smart friend lists and the movement of privacy controls to the site where people post content into the news feed.
And there’s a very good reason why I’ve yet to pinpoint exactly when this happened: Many of us poke in response to a notification on the homepage rather than clicking the button on the recipient’s profile.
Many of us have ongoing poke volleys going with a set of people on Facebook, some of these exchanges dating back years.
Sure, there’s always a first poke in such an exchange, plus we tend to go directly to someone’s profile page and click if we haven’t gotten a response to our last poke.
It’s very telling that the poke option now appears in the same menu as suggest friends and report/block.
Women who don’t use Facebook’s privacy settings on the site — limiting visibility in search results, restricting who can send you messages or friend requests, and making photos less visible — tend to receive pokes from unfamiliar faces, although this happens less than it used to.
Alas, the volume of unwanted pokes seems directly proportionate to a female recipient’s attractiveness and youth, among those who don’t restrict their profiles already.
So moving the poke option to the same pull-down menu as suggest friends and report/block is very consistent with Facebook’s recent relocation of various privacy controls to the specific sites where they’re needed.
Readers, how do you use the poking feature on Facebook? Are you less likely to initiate a poke now that it’s tucked into a pull-down menu?
>>Readers, how do you use the poking feature on Facebook?
If i haven't seen a friend on any given day then I Poke them to let them know I was still thinking about them, With a friends list intentionally limited to 100-120, and posting statuses that encourage feedback, i rarely have more than 20 people to Poke each day.
>>Are you less likely to initiate a poke now that it’s tucked into a pull-down menu?
While it's only one extra click, that extra click really adds up over the course of Poking 20 friends at a time. I'll probably be less likely to Poke everyone. Maybe I'll just post one status at the end of the day and tag all the people I would have Poked.
Comment by KJK — September 19, 2011 @ 5:56 pm
I don't like it. Being poked by men I'm not intimate with is just as uncomfortable in the virtual world as it is in the real world.
Comment by Jewel Trotman Fryer — September 19, 2011 @ 6:02 pm
http://wouldyoupoke.com brings it back!
Comment by Andrew — September 19, 2011 @ 6:41 pm
Note: They also removed the sidebar which shows who recently poked you. You must now visit your personal profile in order to see, then click the POKE link and go about poking people :/ Sadly enough This is the ONLY reason why I continue to use Facebook
Comment by Nathan Soliz — September 19, 2011 @ 6:45 pm
[...] Facebook’s homepage certainly has room for more buttons or links, and so does the rest of the site, for that [...]
Pingback by Will Facebook Debut ‘Read,’ ‘Watch,’ ‘Listen’ Buttons? — September 19, 2011 @ 11:29 pm
It's been a fairly redundant feature for a while. It was basically an "ice breaker" – in the early days, once you'd poked someone your profile information became visible to them for 7 days or something like that, which is more like how some dating sites work. Facebook has changed a lot since then!
Comment by @netnatives — September 20, 2011 @ 6:04 am
Regardless of the "leaps and bounds" that facebook & Google+ seem to be making as far as dominating the realm of social networks, there's one thing neither are actually doing–taking user privacy seriously. The only site out there that puts user privacy first is ONLYMEWORLD. All these features and apps that the two sites are adding are to keep users on their social networks distracted. The fact is that many people are becoming very conscious of their online privacy and presence these days. No matter how many "lists" or "circles" you create it doesn't do anything to secure your privacy.
Comment by Ericka Anne — September 20, 2011 @ 11:24 am
Is is like playing poker on facebook?
Comment by Invoice Templates — September 29, 2011 @ 3:50 am
[...] Poke notifications have received a makeover: They now include the old icon showing a hand with index finger extended. [...]
Pingback by MORE CHANGES!? Facebook Refines Appearance — September 30, 2011 @ 11:49 am
Hi
At first when i started fb the poke was just among friends
just for fun.
But if some one hasn't been on for awhile or it is a new
person added some times i'll poke them because most
of the time i'll get a reply back.
but i like the birthday because usually they will say thank you
and from there i'll ask how are they or how was there day.
but i still need to learn FB all over again. I miss the old way
of things. Now my links disappear and if i send message on
fb to friends they go off into cyber space some where or the
person answers me back and it does appear I've any new
message and a week or longer i decide to send a message
and the person has answered me.
Comment by Bonnie Squires — October 12, 2011 @ 1:06 am
[...] The rightmost button has the exact same design as the link on personal profiles for the pulldown menu containing the poke button. [...]
Pingback by Facebook Makes Group Pages A Bit More Like Profiles — October 19, 2011 @ 5:20 pm
thanks a lot because i use less Facebook in my PC but i use in mobile phone so i was not able to findi it the exact place after reading your article i got that i find every thing about Facebook in your website and i use it for my Social Media Optimization…i think you should start for other SMO also if it is there then share with Us
Comment by Kundan Singh — November 24, 2011 @ 12:47 pm