Tech Watch: You Have Yoke on Your Face(book)

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Creeping on Facebook just went to a whole new level with the launch of the new dating app, Yoke. Ex-Huffington Post Social Media Editor, Rob Fishman, and Jeff Revesz created a matchmaking app for Facebook designed to help you meet your friends' single friends. Although the app has its setbacks, it has shown a lot of potential compared to other online dating services. Yoke has captured the interest of 7,000 users in their first week, according to Venture Beat.

Unlike other dating sites, it's not necessary to create a profile. This app is layered on top of your already existing social media network, Facebook.Yoke uses the plethora of data those users have already provided, automatically, just by being on Facebook. Yoke also analyzes users' Social Graphs, a term Facebook uses to describe the relationships between people, their interests, and activities, to determine shared friends and friends-of-friends.

It's very easy to signup for the application. Simply choose five photos (your most flattering of course) from your profile album that you would like to share. Yoke will then automatically fill in the rest of your information—i.e., your age, hometown, education, friends, interests, and likes. Once your profile is completed, the app will begin to match you with people deemed compatible.

If you are concerned with your online dating life to cross paths with your ever-growing social (media) life, there is no need to worry. Even though Yoke uses Facebook as its platform and interface, it's very meticulous with users' privacy. It will not post your interactions from the app all over everyone's newsfeed, opposite of Farmville. As Fishman explained to The Atlantic, the app is trying to approximate dating as it is done in real life, and "real life" increasingly involves Facebook.

Fishman included that he and his team are looking to take advantage of Facebook's Open Graph to show potential matches that they have more than just similar interests – that they both listened to same Spotify song or read the same article from The Washington Post that morning. His team is interested in connecting to other networks including Twitter, Foursquare, and possibly Goodreads to match users by who they follow, places they check-in to and books that they read.

So what is the downside to using this app? It connects you to other Facebook users, not just those using Yoke. Therefore, you can get matched up with the love of your life only to realize they are unavailable. Let's face it, there are plenty of Facebook users who identify themselves as single, but are completely unavailable. 

Our very own Michael Haas decided, for good journalistic measure, that he would signup for the app and explore what Yoke has to offer. It has been 5 days and he has yet to find a match (ladies, he's available!), but once he does and is able to engage in the app, we are certain he will have something to say about it. We'll keep you posted, Erie Reader readers, so be sure to check-in for updates.

-Angela Kelly, project manager