superpoke

Slide's SuperPoke is coming to VH1

Who said you couldn't bring the Web to TV? Slide's absurdly popular social-network application "SuperPoke" is coming to a new platform: MTV Networks' VH1, as part of a promotion for its new reality show I Love Money.

In a cross-promotional advertising deal, "actions" related to VH1's schlocky reality shows Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, and I Love New York will appear in the SuperPoke arsenal. In other words, you'll be able to post things on your friends' Facebook and MySpace profiles along the lines of "Josh has gotten romantical with … Read more

Max Levchin envisions an Alcoholics Anonymous app on Facebook

SAN FRANCISCO--Max Levchin made a name for himself as the co-founder of transaction system PayPal, one of the Web's foremost utilitarian services. Then he made a name for himself again at the helm of Slide, which isn't exactly in the same space. Its flagship product, "SuperPoke," has become the poster child--er, poster sheep--for criticism of social-networking developer applications as a silly fad.

On Wednesday, after his keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, I asked Levchin if he thought there were actually a chance for some social applications to emerge that … Read more

Throw a sheep at your friends on Facebook

Does "owning" a friend on Facebook sound more appealing than merely poking him?

Three new applications take the "poke" button on Facebook further.

Kathleen's wild 'n' crazy poking application lets users send a customized poke. The first step is identifying the "victim," followed by "method of attack" (impaled; nuzzled; duct-taped with, for example, a rusty spoon; chocolate-covered raisins, and so forth) and place of attack (eye, outer space, lung, teeth). This application works with Facebook but is separate from it--a big turnoff.

XMe lets its users change the default verb that … Read more