How do facebook choose which friends to show on my profile?

October 29, 2007 3:49 PM

How do facebook choose which friends to show on my profile?

This picture clarifies what I mean: http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/673/how1hk1.gif

posted by okokok to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Everytime I reload it changes. Is it random?
posted by ALongDecember at 3:54 PM on October 29, 2007

It's random as far as I know.
posted by grouse at 3:57 PM on October 29, 2007

It's random.
posted by special-k at 3:59 PM on October 29, 2007

Best answer: I didn't see the talk myself, but last week someone from FaceBook gave a talk at Carnegie Mellon University. A friend that did see that talk told me that the friends shown are mostly random, with a bias towards showing people that you are "stalking" (in terms of the number of times you have checked their profile and other activities).
posted by jasonhong at 4:00 PM on October 29, 2007 [4 favorites]

I've observed what seems like a bias towards people who have recently updated, or about whom I have recent notifications (recently accepted my add request, etc). It must be a fun job to come up with whatever algorithms are used.
posted by myrrh at 4:14 PM on October 29, 2007