I originally assumed that Poking was merely flirting: A subtle way to get the attention of another Facebook user. And yet just under half of my Pokes are from males — most of them seemingly straight (or are they?). So again: What does a Poke mean? And should we take a Poke to be flirtatious when it could, in my case, just as easily mean “Hey, I just sent you a press release about my new app”?

Facebook doesn’t even know what a Poke means, with the Help page reading: “The poke feature can be used for a variety of things on Facebook. For instance, you can poke your friends to say hello.” Ah, so they’re either saying hello, or flirting, or pestering … or something completely different.

via Facebook, It’s Time To Kill the Poke.

Facebook users are seeing a new “View Shares” link beneath news feed stories by friends, Pages, and those they subscribe to. When clicked, it opens a popover window displaying who has reposted that story and any additional context they added. Users will only see shares visible to them, meaning any post published publicly or by one of their friends.

via “View Shares” Link Shows Who Has Reposted Any Facebook News Feed Story.

Facebook today launches the Subscribe button – an option for users to receive the publicly visible updates published by non-friends. Similar to Twitter, this asynchronous following capability will expand the types of relationships users can have on Facebook beyond friendship, allowing users to conveniently view content in news feed from people they don’t know but are interested in.

via Facebook’s New Subscribe Button Allows Asynchronous Following of Non-Friends’ Public Updates.