Finding out more about Facebook's latest addition, the 'Ask' button
Have you been attracted to someone and got your best buddy to find more information about him/her? Well now, Facebook does that for you. Romantic? Not so sure.
Majority of Facebook users prefer to be selective about the information they reveal - relationship status, work, mail id, city you live in etc — to friends but now they can be ‘requested’ for information by clicking on the newly installed ‘Ask’ button.
Facebook is hoping to play match-maker with the ‘ask’ button. Anyone ranging from the ‘nerdy guy I met at work’ to ‘girl with weird hairdo who is just another number on my fb page’ could ‘ask’ you about your relationship status — in other words ask you out.
Facebook is preparing to take a share of the online dating pie by getting its users to ask each other out. Facebook has one of the biggest global customer base and with access to private information such as interests (likes), hobbies and private information, it will have a definitive edge over normal dating sites.
The online dating industry is booming and is now worth over Rs 12,240 crore. With decreasing stigma of online dating there is a lot of scope for Facebook to generate business out of its new installment.
But there’s more to the ‘ask’ button than just asking each other out. Facebook thrives on the information of its customer base and with users selective about divulging their information the social media giant will now get your friends to get the information from you.
It’s increasingly disturbing that Facebook is trying to extract information about your private life. Worse, getting your friends to do it for them. With the ask button, the user could be put in a unenviable position of honouring a request for the sake of being polite or even worse, end up embarrassed for refusing to.
Having the luxury of sitting behind a computer in your pyjamas and asking someone out might be a life saver for the socially awkward but it is also incredibly creepy. Maybe the not-so-old way of asking someone out over a phone call or message might just be a better option.
