Filed under: Fun, Internet, Utilities, Productivity, Web services, web 2.0
Facebook now suggests "people you may know"
It finds these people based on "your existing connections", but we don't know how it decides the order of the list. Our guess: the more people you both know, the higher on the list the person gets placed.
We didn't recognize any of our first four suggestions (pictured above), but the profile we used to test the feature is not heavily used. In contrast, Harrison Hoffman at CNet seems to know or have met most of his suggestions. It would make sense that Facebook profiles used more heavily will produce better results.
[via CNet]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Tony2X said 8:05AM on 3-27-2008
Hmmm, not sure if I like this. Most of my suggestions are indeed people that I know but also people that I don't particularly like (or vice versa) and don't want on my Facebook. Since they launched this I've ignored most of the friend requests that come through and I do so hate to be rude.
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Tom said 8:21AM on 3-27-2008
I agree, several I don't like but one I had been having trouble remembering the name of, I was amazed to see him and was happy to finally be able to talk to an old friend again after forgetting his weird last name.
Franklin said 8:09AM on 3-27-2008
Wow. Yet another privacy question. WTF is up with Facebook? They've become worse than MySpace.
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Oneiroi said 12:15PM on 3-27-2008
I think saying this is an invasion of privacy is a bit much. I mean you can already go and see a friend's friends, and see all of their interactions with everyone by name.
This just makes it less difficult to do.
I do agree though that most of the people on the list are people I didn't want to add in the first place.
Eric Smoger said 8:30AM on 3-27-2008
Noticed this yesterday and the very first person on the list was someone I know, so good feature I think.
It's not a privacy issue: you could find those people just by searching or looking at your friend's profile. If you don't want people to see your name and/or picture... I dunno.. don't create accounts on social networking sites?
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Jordan Running said 9:10AM on 3-27-2008
I agree, this doesn't change Facebook's privacy landscape at all. It doesn't expose any information that wasn't already exposed.
As far as the feature's utility goes, I have 27 people on my list and all there are only two whose names (or photos) don't ring a bell. A few of them are people who I, like Tony2X, know but don't actually like. The rest are just acquaintances or friends-of-friends who I don't feel a need to friend. Still, I think for many users, especially those who have been on Facebook long enough to accumulate a few friends, but not long enough to "complete" their friends list as I have.
LA26 said 8:38AM on 3-27-2008
LOL from my understanding if the "People you may know" feature generates possible matches by the people listed on all of your friend's friend list.The ones with the most in common get listed.
I've found a few that I knew of not necessarily knew or were on speaking terms with.
Neat feature but at the same time privacy {Can I have it?}
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Vitor said 10:41AM on 3-27-2008
I just found 5 contacts and added them to my list, I wouldn't have found them otherwise as going through everyone's profile and checking all their contacts is too much work. Great feature!
As privacy is regarded, I don't see a point, this only exposes what was already exposed by the search feature.
Tony2X, if you don't want to add someone you don't like, but he/she requested you, you have no choice but to be rude, they could have found you anyway... this is a real life rule, no way to avoid it.
I think allowing more ways to connect people instead of keeping them apart is the way to go, when you are considering a SOCIAL network.
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Tony2X said 12:23PM on 3-27-2008
Yes agreed and actually I have no problem with ignoring requests and my comment was somewhat flippant. On the plus side I did find a couple of people that I know, and like. So every cloud has a silver lining!
Vitor said 2:58PM on 3-27-2008
Good to know, Tony2X :-)
I really believe this is an excellent feature, as I never was patient enough to go through all my contact's friends to grow my network. :)
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ddmax said 3:20PM on 3-27-2008
WOW! I just found about a dozen people that I knew growing up. Very cool.
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kingkool68 said 4:46PM on 3-27-2008
I'm surprised they didn't do this earlier.
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Cassie said 1:56AM on 4-01-2008
I for one don't like this feature that much. The majority of the people on the list are people who I know and do not want to be "friends" with on facebook, meaning I don't want their pictures on my front page in facebook!
I'm going to suggest to facebook that they make this an option that is able to be hidden. So then everyone who likes to find old friends can use it and those who want to stay away from those old friends, can.
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