Okay, Facebook will probably not expand its poking policy to the photo sharing app Instagram. Seriously, why does the site even have a "poke" option anymore? Has anybody used the "poke" function on Facebook in the past five years? And more importantly, what will happen to Instagram now that Mark Zuckerberg's taking over?
If he can replicate the success of Facebook with this new toy, Zuckerberg will turn Instagram into the photo service we all hate but use anyway because it's the most efficient method of broadcasting our own vanity.
Oh wait, it's already that exact thing? No wonder Zucks wanted in.
In his announcement of his plans (posted on Facebook, obviously), Zuckerberg said:
For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.Riiiiiiight. Because it's going to be all about creating the best user experiences, and not at all about shilling out more of folks' personal information to fuel sneaky companies' online marketing schemes. Comparatively, photo-poking doesn't sound so bad.
We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
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