Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Nine Friends on Facebook Timeline: HOLY CHANGE-UP, BATMAN! (New Algorithm, As of November 2013)

WELCOME to the fourth installment (one, two, three) of The B Channel's comprehensive coverage of Facebook friend rankings, a thrilling and exciting topic if ever there was one.  Our post today will cover what the bleeding hell happened to our nine last week.   

"The nine," for the uninitiated, is the box of nine friends on the Timeline portion of one's Facebook profile.  These nine friends are different for every viewer.  When your friends look at your Timeline, the nine they see is a mixture of mutual friends, randoms, and people on your friends list whom Facebook has determined may be of interest to them based on their viewing habits (interestingly, they will never, ever see themselves there).  The nine that you see when you look at your Timeline used to be a combination of family members, close friends, and people with whom you frequently interacted. 

LAST TIME in this exciting series, we discussed stalking habits...and more specifically, whether those stalking habits are discoverable by the stalkee.  Though the answer to that question initially appeared to be "no," extensive (some may say compulsive) experimenting by many, many readers proved at least a little bit otherwise.  Stalkers did occasionally show up in one's nine, but only if there was some prior history of communication, usually private messaging, between the two people.  However, once in the nine, if communication did not resume, the stalker would drop off very quickly.

Yes, we had it figured out, it all made sense, all was right with the world...

...UNTIL LAST WEEK.

That's when everything changed.

***

Here is my old nine, according to the last screenshot I took before the switch (about two weeks prior):

This ranking was orderly to the point of boring, based almost entirely on how many messages I exchanged with people (I exchanged the most with Number 1, second most with Number 2, etc.) with the leftover spaces being filled by people I have listed on my profile as family members.

Then, all the sudden, bam, NEW NINE, and only TWO of these people were carried over (Number 5, who was previously Number 1, and Number 9, who was previously Number 3):


Alright, let's stick new numbers on this baby and get down to bizniss:


Number 1:  Just posted a picture of me on Facebook.  We also get tagged at many of the same events, though that could be said for me and half the people on my friends list (because I socialize almost exclusively with a bunch of co-dependent runners whose love of physical activity only slightly edges out their love of documenting their every damned move on Facebook).

Number 2:  A long-term good friend, on whom I frequently bestow "likes."

Number 3:  My best friend.

Number 4:  A friend who messages me every once in a while.  Mostly, I ignore him.  (If you saw the stuff he sends me, you'd ignore him, too.)

Number 5:  The friend I currently communicate the most with on Facebook.  Moby Dick-length messages happen between us

Number 6:  A friend who posted a few pictures of me earlier in the fall, but nothing recently.

Number 7:  Another friend who messages me every once in a while.

Number 8:  A friend who posted a picture of me three weeks ago. 

Number 9:  A friend who has tagged me and messaged me fairly steadily over the past few months. 

***

ALRIGHT.  We seem to have...

1.  A increased importance placed on photos and tags.

2.  A gentle nudging on Facebook's behalf to remind me of people whom I interact with sporadically but not regularly.

3.  People I have had relatively recent interactions with now being given priority over family members (I don't have anyone listed as a "close friend," so I'm not sure if that has been affected or not).

***

As when the nine first debuted, I watched the order carefully over the first week and noticed several subtle changes, but nothing major.  No one left or entered.  No one made a huge leap either up or down the list.

But as with my first discussion of the topic of Facebook friend rankings, which back then was best represented by the six friends at the top of one's profile, there was one friend in particular whose movements were of more interest to me than anyone else's.  That would be Number 3, who stayed third for a couple of days before moving up to the second slot temporarily:


Why was this of such interest to me?  Number 3, as mentioned above, is my best friend, Kara.  But Kara, as mentioned in the original post, is, um, dead.  Has been for three years now.  So why the hell did she bump up in my rankings?  I called her presence in my six "The Kara Paradox," and I'm going to reinstate that term for this new situation in the nine.

Perhaps even more strange than the fact that she moved up is the fact that she's on there at all.  I do occasionally visit her profile, but certainly no more (and almost assuredly much, much less) than other people's.  So why is she there?

I don't know.  And I really don't think anyone is stalking me these days because I never, ever post anything on Facebook (like, ever), so maybe what I'm seeing isn't what you all are seeing anyway.

I'm eager to hear what, if any theories, the rest of you have about this new system of ranking!  I'M ALL EARS.  (Or eyes, since this in the internet.)  Inquiring minds want to know.

282 comments:

  1. Well, where to start? First things first. Thanks for covering all this topic. I am glad to hear I am not the only one interested in this stuff....


    Like you've mentioned, the last top 9 were based on my behavior. My current crush was placed in the 5th or 6th spot, maybe due to mutual stalking. Maybe not. But the current top 9 are somehow weird. Number one: a friend who is pretty annoying, cause he posted all kinds of stuff on my wall, commented on nearly anything and liked my stuff of course...number two: my best friend in real life. I guess she might have been on my profile a lot lately, showing her boyfriend old pics. Number 3: my ex roommate, we're still very close, comment a lot each others stuff. And so on...


    It seems to accurate, that the new 9 are based on public interaction. So I payed attention to the about section with its 8 friends. I know for sure that 2 people showing up there put me in their close friends list...And my crush also showed up in there...

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    1. I spoke too soon when I said that no one had entered or left my nine, because I had a friend do just that (in the course of less than 12 hours) yesterday evening! I just checked my activity log to make sure, and I hadn't liked/commented/messaged anything with this person in a long while...although I *may* have clicked on some of her pics in the newsfeed (can't remember), so I'm not ruling that out as the reason she showed up. Otherwise, it seems like a pretty clear case of profiles views still being counted, with the viewers cycled in and out very rapidly if there's no further interaction.

      Thanks for sharing your observations!! Every time I've put up a new post on this, it's taken a while to get the discussion to move over to the new thread, but I'm hoping people will continue to contribute their anecdotal evidence. My 8, by the way, are not terribly interesting at this point, but as that was one thing I hadn't been monitoring, I'll keep checking it for changes...

      Delete
    2. It's been a while since I had been on Facebook or visited your blog. Last Sunday was the first time a logged into Facebook after two months and today is first coming here even longer. I noticed my 9 wasn't the same, but I'm trying to get it back and so far it's working. A friend of mine and I haven't has been exchange messages and likes here and there which pulled her back to number 1 and the guy I have stalked dropped as well. I can't remember his number but he was getting low. I don't get much of his posts on my page so I paid a trip to his and there wasn't many new posts there. A few have made it to my page these past few days and I clicked like on them, one was just yesterday but showed up today. So, now he has been pulled to number two. Call me silly but I want to make sure my 9 stays the way it currently is. I almost forgot to mention. A former classmate of mine birthday was today so I sent her wishes and now she in my 9.

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    3. I signed in again today to post pictures and now my crush is number 1 in my 9 box. Though I wonder about this I'm not upset about. He's a cutie and this girl likes what she see's. I just figured it is a one way street as far as interactions.

      Delete
  2. Yay for a new thread! Becky, I can definitely see the patterns you've noticed, especially when it comes to sporadic interactions and recent activity. My 9 also did a change-up, but not as dramatically as yours; 7 just switched their boxes around, while 2 disappeared altogether. They are now as follows:

    1 - college friend who is very active on FB, but with whom I don't interact much other than a few likes and comments here and there. No messages; was never in my 9 before the change-up.

    2 - best friend with whom I chat a ton. Was #1.

    3 - my sister. I post stuff on her profile often. Her spot hasn't changed.

    4 - some guy I've messaged a bit and who likes/comments on a lot of my posts. He used to come in and out of my 9, lingering towards the bottom.

    5 - a medium-friend whose posts I like/comment on sometimes, but otherwise don't interact much with. I really doubt he visits my profile. He used to fluctuate in and out of my 9.

    6 - another medium friend, similar to above.

    7 - one of my best friends (married to current #2/best friend). I share his stuff a lot. He's never been much of a presence in my 9, though I'm not sure why.

    8 - my mom.

    9 - a low-friend/acquaintance, with whom I chat with occasionally and who likes/comments on my stuff sometimes. He used to pop into my 9 on occasion.

    Now for the two who have disappeared - my crush and his girlfriend, who were at 2 and 4, respectively. Crush is still in my 8; we've been friends for a long time, have 30ish mutual friends, and like/comment on each other's stuff often. We don't message much. The other day he reappeared as #9, but quickly re-disappeared.

    My new #1 is super strange. Not close friends, was never before in my 9, BUT my #2 and I had been chatting a ton about her in the days leading up to her new placement. Do you think the new algorithm takes out chat content into consideration? However, we were also chatting a lot (more, probably) about her husband, who is nowhere in my 9.

    Anyway, just thought I'd throw out my own observations. Hopefully we can start seeing some trends and coming to some semi-conclusions. As with the others, I'll be following this thread breathlessly. Thanks for helping to facilitate our obsessions, Becky!




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  3. I'm not big on using Facebook for commenting and status updates, I use it primarily for messaging people.

    Prior to the change my top friend was a girl I was seeing who I had messaged fairly frequently this year. However despite going on holiday together we had neither commented on each others posts nor had we tagged each other in photos. She disappeared off my list altogether once the change happened. She first appeared in my top friends list when our interactions in real life became more flirtatious and I'm not sure if this was as a product of her visiting my page more or vice versa. It definitely had nothing to do with interactions over facebook.

    I've got a hunch that the new list is based more on public interaction. A few people that appeared in my list out of nowhere were in recent photos with me, and one guy was a friend whose music I occasionally "like".

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  4. I use my FB for reading, reposting, and posting a lot of material. I also chat a fair amount with people.

    Here is my current ranking:

    1) male, friends with for a couple years. frequent re-postings, comments, likes, taggings, posting to wall, sporadic chat

    2) male, friends with about a year. QUIT FB few weeks ago, but I suppose logs in occasionally. long history of reposts/likes/comments, etc, and a fairly frequent chat buddy

    3) male, friends with also about a year. i share a lot of their material and comment on a number of their postings. they occasionally do the same with my content. no chatting. an intellectual/friendly rapport

    4)male, also friends ~year. posts little, but comments, likes and reposts my shit like a mofo. my friend (#2) is always suggesting (via phone) that we hook up so i think this guy has a thing for me. but i see him as a friend. little chat history.

    5) male, but now out as aspiring transgender. friends for a million years. comment a decent amount when they're on, and vice versa. decent chat history. they frequently de-activate account.

    6) male, friends with a year or so, don't really interact with that much. we are a couple "secret" forums together, one of which he leads, but i rarely post in either anymore. some chat history but nothing recent.

    7) male, friends with a couple years. was closer with my ex. sporadic but consistent interaction. also has hit on me a number of times while drunk (in person) so not really sure...

    8) male, friends about a year. intellectual rapport. share/repost/comment/like many things. virtually non-existent chat history

    9) female, friend about a year. activist, tons of friends, i like some of her postings but there aren't that many, so...not really sure. little commenting/activity of my content. very little chat history.


    now, under Graph Seach, when I view "Friends of (Myself), I have (just gonna do first 8):

    1). same as #1 on top 9

    2) female, one of closest/oldest friends. long history of interaction,but not always heavy.

    3) male (gay), ditto. long history of interaction but not so much over last year; rarely posts. admits to seeing things i post, "love your new dress, etc" but rarely comments. limited chat.

    4) female, semi-frequent interaction, including a group chat with my #5 top 9 person last night. friends for long time, but not super-close. when she visited me, however,, i noticed i was in her personal top 9. she said she never notices that stuff and is almost never on her timeline.

    5) female, one of best friends. long history, used to chat a ton but is very busy lately and hardly on. i test-stalked her a bit before the change to see if i could bump her up in my top 9. also tagged her in a post a couple days ago.

    6) female, friend for many years, NEVER interact. she was a test-subject or "stalkee." always in this damned list. thanks, FB.

    7) same as #8 on top 9. recent convo interactions...other than that, think he tagged me recently?

    8) brand-spanking new friend. you get a bit inundated with new people's posts so maybe it's a viewing thing? liked/commented on a couple things.


    now, this Graph ranking is a bit different than usual. it goes on to include what i can only assume are randoms. the other half of the time it seems to be highly indicative of actual close relationships and page/photo/etc. views (whether mine, theirs, or mutual).

    a1

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  5. I am fairly active on FB despite the great waste of time it can be and have also been very interested in the recent change on the displayed top 9 friends. Prior to Nov 2013 it made relative sense including most of my best friends now it seems there is no method to the madness, or is there ?

    1) A girl I haven't seen in about 7 years in person and we live about 3K miles apart. We do however have alot of common interests and views, also she is likely the most beautiful girl I've ever met, definitely out of my league.

    2) A girl I attended school with who i'm quite certain had a thing for me during the time we were hanging out but I was never really interested in her, we were good friends at most. She transferred to a different school and we don't really talk anymore.

    3) A girl from my hometown who I don't believe I've ever talked to on FB, the only common ground I think we have is we both like to party on the weekends. A strange placement in my opinion.

    4) Another girl who I had a major crush on last semester at school, unfortunately for circumstances I cannot control that did not work out, kind of broke my heart at the time, but i'm over it now. She has had a serious bf for a while now.

    5) A guy who I haven't seen in about 8 years, definitely one of the greatest overall people I've ever met, I have the utmost respect for this guy, however we have not spoke in person in like I said about 8 years at least.

    6) Another guy who I consider my cousin although we are not technically cousins or any relation for that matter. Haven't seen this guy in probably 20 years, not even sure what common ground we share.

    7) A female in my hometown whom I attended high school with and I didn't see much of until the past 6 months. I discovered recently that the girl had a crush on me or at least likes to flirt with me quite a bit. Nothing has happened with her, we're friends.

    8) A female whom I attend college with, this girl is absolutely gorgeous, and if it wasn't for the mutual friend who introduced us I likely would have never met her. Totally out of my league.

    9) A college roomate and one of my first friends at my new school, this kid is one of a kind. He reminds me of a real life Kramer from Seinfeld, his brain doesn't process things before he says things, certainly an interesting time hanging out with him.

    When I do a FB graph search for my friends #4 & #8 show up but not in that order. I've been very interested to see exactly what is the deal with this new algorithm FB is using to display these friends. Not sure why this stuff interests me so much but it really does. Thanks.

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  6. I have a question, say im on my own facebook but i look at a friend top 9, do these same guidelines work for who shows up on theirs or is it just random?

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    1. Who you see on their 9 is determined by your own viewing habits, and will be different than who they see when they look at their own profile, if that makes sense...

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  7. After a few more days of observation...someone in Kara's family put up a new picture on her profile, which I "liked," and ever since, she's been Number 1 in my 9. For whatever reason (probably via my own behavior that I'm unaware of!), she has apparently been rankly very highly in importance to me by Facebook...

    She is NOT however, even in the top half of my friends when I look by Graph Search! Four in the top ten are in my 9, and the rest of the top people on Graph Search are people I either message with frequently (i.e., people who were in my 9 before the switch), or people whose profiles I occasionally look at (though not necessarily people I "stalk"), or new friends.

    Also interesting, I recently had a message-exchange with a friend and he did NOT move up into my top 20 when looking at my friends grid on my Timeline, which is definitely a change from before. My top 20 continues to (seemingly) have a few randoms thrown in, and of all the friends listings, currently seems the one the least subject to change...

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  8. My 9 haven't changed that much... besides that my ex-boyfriend who I haven't seen in person for more than 10 years and we only chatted once on FB has vanished from it - funny how even got in there x)

    Besides that, the people I interact with on a more or less frequent basis are in there, in what I would say is pretty much the order I interact with them.

    Annie Sasha

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  9. Now Graph Search friends list is showing what I would say is the more accurate reflection of activity, whether yours, your friends, or mutual.

    Tier 1
    1) #1 on top 9, always posting on walls, sharing, liking, commenting, tagging, etc. we're both heavy users. never go directly to his page, though.

    2) ex-crush. very limited interaction last month or so. prior to that i did stalk his photos a bit when a friend was over. 2nd highest chat history, but well in the past.

    3)one of my all-time besties: friend since grade school; we fairly regularly comment or like posts. i rarely visit her page.

    4) another bestie: rarely on now, fairly high chat history; definitely within top 10 in that regard. liked and commented on something i tagged her on recently; bumped back into #9 on timeline and up this list a bit. had test-stalked her a bit to see if i could move her around prior to the top 9 change.

    5) acquaintance who has become better friend. likes some of my posts, comments sometimes; had a 3-way chat with a mutual friend a couple days ago. was the person i mentioned who had me show up in their private top 9 when they were visiting. pretty much never view her page.

    6) close friend, admits to stalking my profile. we go through bouts of comments/tags/wall posts, and recently, chatting. she's not a very heavy user that i know of.

    7) online guy i flirt with (ok, it goes a bit further than that), lives in another state, does stalk my profile a bit, and i sometimes stalk his. steady chat history over last few months.

    8) gay male bff. NEVER posts on his account but comments occasionally on my stuff. does see a lot of my content b/c will remark on during phone calls. decent chat history.

    9) good male friend. mutual liking/commenting. i never view their page. they recently came out as transgendered so i don't think have any sexual interest in me, so probably no stalking there.

    10) guy i'm dating. he has limited computer access but he's liked a fair number of things, and we chat semi-regularly.

    11) one of the "gang" of ....let's just say it's complicated. not sure why he's in my timeline #9 and here now. he's married and lives outside the US and i don't think has any interest in me. limited commenting/liking. some chatting but not really any in months.

    12) #2 in my timeline 9. male. Used to chat a lot, share, like comment a lot, but effectively quit facebook about a month ago. i actually visited his page today, but rarely have done so.

    A1

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  10. Good reading! I'm as curious about this, as it gets. Brain dead after a long hard week at work. Here's my one huge curiosity question:

    I noticed the change in the channel 9 friend list immediately. I didn't know what to think. My #1 friend is now #5. I'm disappointed :( Was thinking it was interest in me, on their part.

    My question is regarding the old 9 friend list - was friend #1 put in the friend/position #1 by me or did they put themselves into the friend/position #1?

    I'll put more thought into the relocation from #1 spot to #5 spot later. Just curious about thoughts on the old channel/friend line-up.

    Signed, Anonymous DJ

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    1. On the old list, a person in the number 1 spot was almost assuredly there by mutual behavior...but your behavior would be weighted more than the other person's. So it's still possible this person was looking at your profile quite a bit, but at number 1, s/he almost definitely didn't get there without your habits very much influencing things.

      That's really interesting that your number 1 also went to number 5, as mine did. I wonder if that's coincidence or if there's a pattern there...hmmm...

      Delete
    2. So did mine. 1 turned to 5.
      FYI, I still look at his profile, doubt he looks at mine, but I slowed WAAAYYY down. I have only "liked" one thing and replied to no messages since September. Thought that might be contributing factor.

      Delete
  11. Interesting (to me) and pertinent (possibly) observation: after a flurry of comments on one of my posts, crush-guy has climbed back up to 5 (was 2). Perhaps the different tiers have different algorithms? My top three have not changed at all, while my bottom six are continually switching around. Thoughts?

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    1. To clarify: my top three haven't changed at all since the switch-up.

      Delete
    2. Interesting!! My top three have switched in order, but no one new has entered or left. (And weirdly enough, as of this morning, Kara is Number 1. What in the world?!) My bottom six have also done a lot of moving around, so based on that, it's entirely possible there's something unique going on with the top three. I'll keep my eye on this!

      Delete
  12. All I have at the moment, is my theory that the recent algo has removed the heavy scoring that messages and chats used to get. 3 of my top 9 were only ever there because of messages and never, ever commented or clicked like on anything.

    I am currently not doing a thing and trying hard to not click on anybodies silly links and have even gone so far as not replying to anybody for a few weeks

    Hopefully my 9 will stay static until I start clicking , if people move about then it's more likely it's on them

    Zuck and friends seem to have only removed the one thing I was sure about.. messages and chats played a very important part of the last algo / scoring

    Now they should have less to go on , we may see a more accurate interpretation of what we are doing and whether others are. I am still pretty much convinced, it's all on us and what we do.

    If we stop doing it, and nothing changes... there you go

    (mark)

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    1. Agreed, agreed, agreed, Mark. Everything you said aligns with what I've been thinking. I guess it's just a wait-and-see game at this point...

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  13. I think it's mostly our activity but some don't make particular sense to me. There are those I comment/like/share/view photos of etc. that do not show up in my 9 that should. Others appear more arbitrary.

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  14. Interesting stuff here. I've noticed a few thing since the changes as well.

    1. - Wife comment and like tons of her stuff (been #1 forever)
    2. - Buddy of mine (i've recently liked and comment few of his postings, he has done the same)
    3. - My best friend (rotated between 2-3 forever, lots of FB communication and interaction)
    4. - My brother (use to pop in and out)
    5. - Old co-worker (recently liked one posting of his like a week ago but thats it like alot of other people not on list post much more)
    6. - Old buddy of mine lost contact with for years recently been chatting with him via facebook on my phone
    7. - Old highschool flame (She's been fluctuating between 7&9 that last few days, a few back and fourth likes but not other communication)
    8. - Old buddy from middle school (commented and liked a few of his posts in the past month)
    9. - Dude I just recently met, (Posted on his wall once about 3 weeks ago nothing else)

    This people have pretty much stayed static on my wall for the last 2 weeks. The only real change 9wise was number 7 moving to 9 and then back to 7 and then back to 9 at least once or twice a day that has been happening. Not sure what to think of this TBH...

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  15. I Think the theory of our interactions with these NINE, and by these I mean Likes, Comments, Messages, etc is the basis of the ranking of these NINE profiles.

    My Number 5 is a bogus profile I made up. (Back from when I was checking up on my cheating ex-husband) And I've NEVER actually clicked No.5's profile from my original FB account. Nor have I clicked on my original FB account from No.5's account. So it can't be about who checks out your profile the most.

    Yet it appears as No.5 on my NINE. I believe this is because I've recently clicked LIKE or commented on the pictures of No. 5's profile and wrote on my timeline as No.5..so that is where I believe it's the interactions we have with our FB friends is the basis of the NINE instead of "who's checking out your profile the most"

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  16. In my old top nine my number one was this girl I interacted with a lot, then when it changed again she totally disapeard from my top nine, she has mad her way back in but is only at nine. My one and two seem to change back and fourth, one is a girl a like and I had been looking at her page, but i hadn't for a couple days, she moved to number one, i looked at her page and she moved back to number 2?

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  17. Welp, now my Graph Search friends list is completely arbitrary.

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    1. Mine still makes sense...although all the "page" designations are gone and it's now one big long list, which makes a little more overwhelming to navigate. But if yours has gone berserk, it's probably only a matter of time before the rest of ours do, too...

      Delete
    2. Mine seems to alternate between seemingly based on my recent activity, and being completely random. Weird. Maybe they're trying different stuff out.

      Delete
  18. Who are the eight friends listed when you click "photos" then "albums" and then scroll down below albums? These same friends seems to always be listed with an occasional change up now and then..

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  19. It makes perfect sense in a way... to remove part of the equation ( chats / messages) from the algo, until the next change ( probably only 6-12 months away) , then pop it back in and remove something else.

    If we ( likely ) assume that a lot of factors come into play... visits, messages, profile views , likes , tags etc then FB needs to try and confuse those like us who are seeing patterns in the chaos.

    I had been keeping a close eye on the order of friends when you type a letter into the search bar. Sometimes people went up and down but by and large it was fairly static. No longer the case, I have even noticed people I had viewed on purpose, rise up and down and they wouldn't even know who I was let alone, why I would be visiting their page

    I have though noticed at times, names of people whose profile I have never visited and this is something worth keeping an eye on. Loads of us notice a pretty face of a mutual friend and click to see who they are. When we have no mutual friends, it's very possible our names can turn up for a short while on this list. Like wise, those who visited us.... and there are currently two in my alpabetised search bar right now... may be letting us know

    Of course we are mostly concerned with those whom we have multiple connections, ex's, crushes and the like. I haven't visited or messaged her for about 5 months and her pesky name still appears

    It's worth having a check thru , once per week to see if you notice any unfamiliar names in your search bar. Sadly the order that they appear now seems to mean nothing and changes often.

    Not a lot else for me to speculate on at the moment. We always knew who was sending us messages and who we were sending and replying to, by removing these factors they aren't telling us much. It might help some of us who thought people were in our 9 solely because of messages, now they are out of the picture... somebody else has taken their place :)

    (mark)

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  20. I haven't gone through my search bar in a while. I'm going to do that today.

    I noticed that today, three days after I looked a friend's profile, she was suddenly in the number 8 spot. I found this interesting because a) I had looked at at least three other profiles the day I looked at hers, but b) those other three were people I visit semi-regularly (and none of them were/are in my nine). I can't imagine number 8 would have looked at my profile for any reason (this was a completely random check-up on an old friend I hardly speak to anymore), so I see this as merely adding to the body of evidence suggesting our own actions are of utmost importance, and also to my nebulous theory about Facebook gently trying to encourage us to interact with more people.

    Mark, as usual, your speculation is thoughtful and, in my opinion, spot on. This seems to be the least interesting algorithm yet. I guess we'll just have to see where it all goes from here...

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    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. how can i delete this post i made on December 6, 2013 at 2:51 AM?

      Delete
  21. I've been paying attention to these two lists for a few weeks now.

    What I've noticed is that the 9 on my web wall and the 6 mobile wall will change but seem to cycle through the same SMALL list of people (for the most part). Here is the thing, my top 1-3 people ARE people I interact with frequently there is no doubt about that, however the other 4-9 barely ever. This is the current ranking as i've seen it.

    WEB: MOBILE:
    1-2-3 1-3-5
    4-5-6 2-4-6
    7-8-9

    Things get interesting in the 6-7web / 5-6mobile category IMO. This is where you will likely start seeing people who are viewing your page. I've noticed the most activity in those corresponding spots. I believe Spots 5, 8, and 9 web wise seem to be the most likely random / minor interaction placed users as they tend to cycle out about every other week if no further interaction either way happens and are usually people I've at least commented or liked something on at some point within the last 2 weeks. I've also noticed that on mobile spot 5 & 7 will swap quite frequently. I believe this happens when a person in a lower ranking views your page it pushes them into spot 5/6 on the mobile and drops 5 off the mobile view. From what I've deduced it seems that the 5 spot on mobile will change based on who in your list of 9 has last viewed your page.

    Bottom line is that if there is ANY chance we are seeing some info about who views our pages in our friends lists my guess is that they are the ones popping up on the web 5-7 group and the mobile 5-6 group. With the user "normally" sitting in the 5 position on both versions kind of acting like a buffer changing when people come and go from your page. I also believe that the MORE friends you have the HARDER it is to see these trends as it starts looking MORE random even though it really isn't simply because you have more friends in your network that may be viewing your page.

    ReplyDelete
  22. what about who shows up in a search? Type in a single letter... the order changes (sometimes it reflects my interacting, but 24, 48, 36, hrs later. any thoughts on how that search order is determined?

    ReplyDelete
  23. My search seems to just reflect people I interact with the most, whether publicly or privately. Ex-crush is most prominent (shows up four times) - I assume this is due to my photo-viewing habits largely relegated to the dustbin. Test subject (I test-"stalked" them over the course of maybe 2-3 mos.) appears relatively low on the list for their name, however, and only once. I find this a bit unusual considering for some time they were ranking high in my Graph Friends, despite no interaction between us, and the assumption that they were not looking at my page/posts at all.

    ReplyDelete
  24. thank you - apparenlty I have generated 'two' search lists with this one person whose profile I look at. one where their page is listed second? and one where their page is listed fourth. Last week their page was listed first, which is how I became interested in this thread in the first place. I started to think it had something to do with their behavior on my page because I hadn't gone to/through their page in days. maybe even weeks. there does seem to be a delay on changing the search 'results' but I do believe as this page discusses, it is solely based on my page interaction behavior - not theirs; although considering it is the latter was so nice for just a little bit :) Thank you for the anonymous response btw. have a great holiday season.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Ok, I just spent way too long testing some things.

    Set up a new email and fb account from a different computer (though same computer/IP i've used before - but NOT my main/home comp/IP).

    Searched for ex-crush, as we have likely had the most chats and page view combos of all my friends.

    Looked at the Graph Search "Friends of." Very surprised to see their ex at #1, and myself at #5; all others seemed random. Their ex is usually in their top 20, I believe also the "About Me" Top 8...probably personal top 9 as well.

    Then I view their friends list. I am in the third tier, as usual, when viewed from a public, non-connected account. I deliberately avoided viewing my account. I instead clicked on profiles and then friends lists of other people in my tier - relatives, good friends - and of all of these, was only able to push one into tier one (a close friend). Much later, after other experiments, I tried the same for myself, and shock! It did not put me in the top tier, as it always had done. I was still third tier. Tried this twice with same results.

    Finally viewed my profile. Viewed Graph Search "Friends Of" and coincidentally (or not), ex-crush was in the #5 spot as well!

    Went to my friends list, clicked on ex-crush, and tried again to see if I could make myself appear in their friends lists top tier. Nope. And never in the public top 9, as used to be the case. Since the public and private friends lists roughly correlate, I can reasonably say that I am firmly in the third tier (though still placing me in about the top 8% of friends).

    Curious about the fifth-place Graph Search rankings, I tried with other friends I think or know view my page or pictures, and they unfortunately either had friends blocked to strangers, or I appeared in a different spot (#2 for one - this person appears in my personal #1 spot under Graph Search).

    Most salient points to me: you can be bumped up in a person's friends list tier just by viewing both pages and friends lists, but only if you have some magical ingredient, as yet unknown.

    There might be a correlation with visitors and the Graph Search friends list, whether public or private. Your own stalking habits reflected on your personal Graph Search is already established - but now I wonder if you can decipher something from friends' public Graph Search friends lists. Maybe there is something special about the #5 spot? Or, if not the number, then the placement of each other in the same spot. I would recommend a few people testing this with people they have viewed a lot and know or have very strong reasons to believe they have been viewed a lot (historically or recently) by the other.

    A1

    ReplyDelete
  26. Ok, tried again real quick-like, and ex-crush moved from my Graph Search #5 to about #7. Still really unsure about the placement of me in their #5 spot, though. Mind you, that was the FIRST THING I DID after creating the new account.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I made a likewise drop in ex-crush's Graph Search - from #5 to #13. Granted, then have about 1,000 friends and I am much lower.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Alright, so now the public top 9 on ex-crush's page include all the people - including me - that I tried to boost into their friends list top tier.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Went back today. All the people I'd "pushed" into ex-crush's public top 9 were gone; they were also in ther original tiers in the friends list. Same with the Graph Search friends list, with me at #5 again, and their ex at #1. I have no idea what this means but it seems significant. Me, ok, maybe FB is picking up the IP and device fingerprint and plopping me there (but why not anywhere else?) but the ex...knowing they're still close...is it reflecting our viewing habits or theirs? usually it's user-driven so it might imply ex-crush is checking out his ex. also viewed another of their ex's page; ex-crush is in their public top 9, but not their top 8. they are also nowhere to be found in the Graph Seach friends list (I wasn't going to scroll that far). Same deal with the aforementioned ex and myself. Ex-crush is simply buried somewhere on that list.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Part I million. Checked today; all the people who'd been "pushed" from tier 2 or 3 were in the public top 9. I was still #1 in Graph Search; ex still #2. Test subject also in ex's top 8; they obviously communicate a lot.

    Now, however, when I went to my profile, test subject is #5 in my Graph Search; exactly where I was positioned on his when I started this experiment. I wonder if it has any significance.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I was checking out the "view as" feature and my nine is pretty much entirely different when viewed as one of my friends.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Yes, that will always be the case.

    I tried something on my Android today. I went to the profile section (top-left hand corner), scrolled down to "Apps" and then "Friends." There were listed my top 6 friends, as on my timeline. However, 7-9 were different. These included the person I had a..a thing with; lots of recent chatting, mutual stalking, comments, likes, etc. Number 8 was someone I recently friended. Not sure why they're there; we do have a lot of mutual friends, and we've interacted a bit. Number 9 was ex-crush. Those appearing on my laptop top bottom row were further down the list. The test-stalkee who often appears relatively high in my Graph friends list was nearly at the bottom. So I wonder - are these 7-9 the "real" ones? The ones on my laptop don't make a great deal of sense.

    ReplyDelete
  33. 2 things to share with you:

    - I have been "stalking" myself from my sister's account for almost a month, but NOT the opposite; the only thing happened is that I became high placed on my sister's 9 (my foto is moving between positions 1 and 2) while my sister never showed up at my 9; I now truly believe that people placed at my top 9 are people who I excganged mails with + those whom I am stalking ;)

    - I did that "View Source" thing, and as I hoped my crush's ID is the first one on the list - yes, I have been stalking him, but since yesterday I stopped to see what change will happen
    What I noticed is that he is listed 3 times on that list with different sufix after his fb id, like this:
    xxxxxxxx03-2, xxxxxxxx03-0 and xxxxxxxx03-3

    His id with sufix -2 is the 1. one on entire list, I suppose this could be sign for our mails exchange or me stalking him, while his id's with sufix -0 and -3 are listed a little bit longer on the list, after some other users, but still not far away

    My question to you is:
    Could these sufix on fb user id: -0, -1, -2, -3 tell us what actions are behind?

    Waiting UNpatient for your ideas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From my own observations about the View Source list, it takes a looooong time for changes to sink in. The person who was number one on my list about nine months ago (because of ample messaging and mutual profile views) has currently only dropped to number 13, even though our interactions have been almost non-existent for many, many months now. So I'm not sure how much you'll be able to tell based on stopping your stalking alone...Facebook seems to "remember" everything you've ever done, and there's no way to really erase that to get a clear picture of how much your activity influences things...

      The anon below posted a really interesting link that I'd encourage you to read. It talks about this and I agree that (sadly) the View Source rankings probably don't tell us quite as much as we think they do!

      As for your experiment with watching your nine and stalking from your sister's account, thank you so much for sharing that!! That completely reinforces the suspicions of myself and many others...it's nice to have verifiable evidence to back it up! :)

      Delete
  34. I just found a partial answer to my post above (read entire text, most interesting part comes at last) - euh :(
    http://abrax.us/Facebook/WhoViewsProfile.php

    ReplyDelete
  35. That is far out of date. The top 9 changed in November and has little-to-nothing to do with chatting or "stalking." It's public interaction (except for the bottom 3, at least in my case - those are a bit dubious).

    The place that reflects chatting and stalking (yours and likely mutual as well) is in the Graph Search "my friends" list.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anyone else heard about this "my friends" list suggestion? i never did

      Delete
  36. I'm intrigued by this idea of Graph Search reflecting what the nine used to. I haven't been paying all that close attention to my Graph Search, aside from noticing it definitely seems to reflect messaging more so than any other ranking on Facebook, and also that people whose profiles I view shoot up before sinking back down very slowly. I haven't had any real wild cards in the mix, though. I'll keep watching...

    ReplyDelete
  37. As for the http://abrax.us/Facebook/WhoViewsProfile.php link, I don't know that that is true. It's not as if Facebook is actually THAT complicated. I had a friend who used to be able to hack into it (within the last year or so) and actually monitor his friend's activity (not actual text but clicks and the like). Very strange to see.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Well, I've done some obsessing about this as well, mainly for the same reason everyone else has...I have a crush on a Facebook friend, and he has been appearing on my top nine, mainly towards the bottom. I have noticed he jumps a spot whenever we have an interaction. Number one is a guy that has flat out asked me out on Facebook, is really annoying, and likes and comments on almost every status update, and I update frequently. So yeah, he's stalking me. And I do not reciprocate. I sometimes respond back or like his comments out of simple politeness but for the most part I try not to encourage him and I never look at his timeline. My best friend is there. We do interact occasionally, but since we actually text and talk on the phone our interactions are minimal at best so how does Facebook know she's special to me? My best friend from college has also claimed a spot, and our situation is the same. I never visit their profiles. I do however update my status frequently...sometimes several times a day, if I'm bored enough. So here is MY theory...who appears in that box are the people who click on your status updates to read through all the comments most frequently. Especially if you're accessing Facebook through a phone...many times you have to click to read the comments. Well, they're clicking. So why they're not actually VISITING your profile (why would anyone have to do that anyway, you can see everything from your newsfeed) they are reading your status updates and following conversations so Facebook has determined these are the people who care about you and are most interested in you based on that. See, even though my two best friends do not interact with me on Facebook they do receive phone notifications when I post and they read each and every status update along with the corresponding comments. So my assumption is that what all these people are doing. So this is good news for anyone that has a crush appearing on the top nine. And as for my crush, he doesn't often "like" or comment but when he does it's sometimes within one minute of me posting suggesting that he's also receiving notifications when I post. Along with that, however, I also think Facebook does throw in a wild card or two...someone who showed interest in the past but maybe isn't on Facebook much or at all anymore. Like your best friend, or I have a college friend who I was once very close with but who isn't on very much who appears on the top nine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you have an extremely valid theory here... I actually do not ever use Facebook from my phone, which possibly puts me in a minority and definitely exposes a hole in my experience, because 100% of my observations and interactions are from a computer. In fact, interestingly, I've had to explain what "the nine" was to people before because they *only* used Facebook via mobile, and thus didn't know what a regular Timeline even looked like on a computer. (Strange, but true!) So yes, I think you have a very good point about clicks playing a role, possibly quite a large one, and those clicks being organically more numerous from a phone...

      If anyone else has anecdotal evidence to add here, I'd love to hear it!

      Delete
  39. Eh, maybe. My #3 is someone who doesn't even post anymore; who left facebook months ago. And my friends are somewhat re-ordered on the fb app (under apps on the menu - NOT the top 6). some of the people on my timeline 9 do i think read or "click" a lot of my statues but some are rarely on. the bottom three are the most confusing. while i do interact with them, i don't see how they're so high in the rankings (sometimes much lower on the aforementioned friends list - which DOES seem to align more with who i'm engaging with and who would be more likely to be clicking on my posts).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was typing my response above as you posted this. VERY INTERESTING, particularly about your #3 being someone who's not even active on FB anymore. The plot thickens...

      Delete
  40. In quasi-related news, a friend alerted me to this and it creeped me the hell out. In case you're interested:

    Facebook is tracking what you don't do on Facebook

    ReplyDelete
  41. I have a 'crush' that I check often -via the Facebook phone app. Their timeline as you point out is different to that on a PC and shows 6 rather than 9. If I then log into the PC the 9 are completely different to the 6! So which is a true representation?
    If I click the 'friends' link there are two female's at the top - unsure why as this person (my crush) doesn't use Facebook other than to accept friend requests. The only activity is when other people tag him/check him in. One of these females is a new addition. So why is she at the top? Will his friends list display different to him? Because in my head I'm thinking that if facebook uses 'activity' ...he doesn't have any unless he private messages?
    All very confusing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ps. This guy has never been in my top 9 and it's the only timeline I go onto!

      Delete
  42. Well, it appears that Facebook has changed the top nine yet again! Now I'm totally confused. My crush, who usually appeared towards the bottom, is now completely off, although there was more interaction between us the last week than there has been EVER. My Facebook stalker was booted from number 1 and is now number five. New to the list is someone who liked one of my statuses in the past week, and a friend with who I've been interacting a lot. But it's also interesting who is not in my top nine..including a friend with whom I have a lot of interaction with but she's never made it in. Now I'm completely scratching my head...

    ReplyDelete
  43. My top three were booted off when it changed and it appeared 10, 11, 12 became 7, 8 and 9. My old #1 was a person I was really hoping was there because of his habits, was in my 9 forever (slowly working his way up) and now has not reappeared. However, he still remains my #1 in chat, even without chatting. We had very little interaction on fb and very few messages. When he peaked my interest, I did go through his info and pictures out of curiosity for him. That was months before he moved into the 1 spot. He remains in my top 20 and I cannot figure out why. Others come and go hourly, while he is still there with no recent interactions. We only have 10 mutual friends and do not belong to any of the same groups. I do not have him in any lists.
    I also remember reading somewhere that it was suggested "mutual friends" in "find friends" gave clues to your top people. I have got in the habit of checking this and refreshing 5 times to see who shows up a certain percentage of the time. Sometimes he isn't there and then other times he's there 80% of the refreshes. Is it a clue that he had been to my page recently? These mutuals are reflective of my old 9 and have not changed. Am I correct in the fact I read this somewhere in these blogs? I wonder if fb decided to switch up the 9 to hide the clues and now use mutual public interaction as the determining factor only. I guess I have convinced myself it was wishful thinking he was viewing me regularly. I try to observe his behavior outside of fb to see if I could be correct..for the most part, he runs away when I come around haha! Other times, his demeanor seems to have a hidden suggestion. Men are so confusing!
    AM

    ReplyDelete
  44. I pretty consistently interact with all but #2 of my top 9. Interestingly the #2 is my crush - but I've only been to his page a couple of times in the past three months and we have only had one very, very brief chat (like 4 exchanges in total). I don't "like" or "comment" very often on his stuff - definitely not as much as I do with others - and I am on facebook very often (I like to call it a problem). I have over 300 other friends who never appear in my top 9 - who I interact with maybe even more frequently than I do with my #2. It is strange that he is there. The people in my 4-9 spots are consistently moving around, but remain the same people. I don't believe there is a rhyme or reason as to why they move around (kind of like the friends listed under the About section). Furthermore, my #1 and #3 constantly comment, like, chat. The only reason I think that my #2 can be my #2 is because of his actions. If only he was that attentive in real life... :P

    ReplyDelete
  45. I have read through all these posts with great interest (and the comments). Some of my observations are that when I type people's names alphabetically into the search bar on a computer/laptop I get my crush appear for his first/middle/last name, yet we are no longer friends and I have stopped myself from looking at his profile. Also we have no mutual friends, no long chat history - was all done via mobile sms/whatsapp.

    Also a guy I have seen, (his friend) appears for a letter in her "nickname". I have no idea who she is and have never looked at her profile other than to see who the heck she is and she mutually has this guy as a friend.

    Someone that stood me up also no longer a friend also has recently cropped up for their surname when inputting the first letter.

    A similar thing happened when I was dating a guy last year. His ex wife would pop up really close to the top for her first and last name, yet I'd never looked for her - again not her friend, just this guy mutually in common.

    Naturally I think the search bar gives you more idea who is looking at your profile than the 9/6 friends and chat list.

    I checked the source code, that only seems to reveal your friends - but my ex of a year with a blocked account is #20... perhaps he unblocks and check on me? I thought I'd deleted him too!

    Another thing... just to make you think even more. I have 11 followers but not all 11 are listed. What the hell is that about???

    (C)

    ReplyDelete
  46. It's C again - see I'm as obsessed as all of you!

    Today I now have new people for x and z and yes you've guessed it. They live near my crush. I have nothing in common with them except one has my crush listed as a friend...so I guess I am getting stalked back. My own fault I 'spose... oh well nevermind!

    ReplyDelete
  47. My search bar is indicative of where I've been and who I talked to last. I started playing with the "view as" and realized it shows my original 9 no matter who I search as. It isn't even close to the 9 I have now. I also wonder what keeps people in your 20 when there's no/little activity and they aren't on a list? I have people moving in and out all the time but 1 that stays. Does this mean they have me on a list?
    AM

    ReplyDelete
  48. Have you ever checked the "people you may know" tab?
    When i pressed the see all option except from some mutual friends in the first 20 spots i have some people that we do not share any mutual friends and to be honest i dont know who they are

    ReplyDelete
  49. 1st: Never interacted with this person
    2nd: A new friend that I've just added
    3rd: Listed as brother, chat moderately
    4th: Never interacted with this person, schoolmate though
    5th: Used to chat with him a lot last few years
    6th: 24/7 online, chat with him quite lot, not the most though
    7th: Never interacted with this person
    8th: Family mutually listed, not really interacted much
    9th: Crush's dad :O

    Therefore... for me, it seems that the 1,4,7, 1st column are assholes there. 2,5,8 are people who Facebook tells me to interact with them more. (2: new friend, 5: used to chat a lot last time and it's like I dumped this person now (although I didn't), 8: relative) 3,6,9 are my good friends.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Now my top 9 seems to have gone back to people I have long histories with, recent or not. Ex-crush rotates in and out, often in #8 or #9, haven't been interacting with them. Best friends shows up bottom row often but they're hardly ever on. I think it's that b/c they post so rarely, and I usually comment, that FB wants me to "see" them. Ditto for ex-crush, b/c of ancient history. Guy who quit FB (but does actually login occasionally has made the slow but steady decline from #1 to #4. #1 is someone i've always interacted with (and was #2 and #3 for long periods. we recently had a...thing. he admits to stalking my page. i had just assumed his positioning was mostly me - sharing things, commenting, liking, and his mutual likes and comments. until very recently we didn't chat much. it makes me wonder about all the other 8 males on my top 9 (me being female).

    A1

    ReplyDelete
  51. I've recently noticed that when I do a graph search of my friends it shows a small bar over the check mark on certain friends (where your friendship status is showing how they are classified, close friends, friends, aquaintances, etc.) The friends who have this small bar over the check mark seem to be the ones I interact with the most and some family members, with the exception of a few and an ex, whom I rarely visit her page. Perhaps these are friends who have me on a certain list. Sometimes I have to hit refresh in order for this bar to appear. Has anyone else noticed this?

    ReplyDelete
  52. You cannot tell me that the top 9 doesn't factor in those that are "stalking" you. I've been tracking this for I don't know how long, and I'm convinced of this. The proof? I'm a male, and 7 of my 9 are females. I have over 2500 friends, and I'm moderately active. I post once a day, sometimes more, and sometimes less. I do a ton of "liking", to stay connected to people, and I try to engage in conversations with as many people as possible, because I use Facebook to keep good exposure for business purposes. I own 2 businesses, I do public speaking, and I'm sort of a "known" community personality.

    That said, my top positions have been pretty consistent with only a few swaps from week-to-week. I've watched it like a hawk. I can tell you that the stalking factor MUST be significant, and I can totally refute the notion that a heavier weight is placed upon the people that I personally seek the profiles of.

    The #1 and #2 people are solid. One is a very close but recent friend (within 1 year) that I used to interact with all the time. But the interaction on FB has gone down 90% in the past 5 months. There's no reason person #1 should still solidly be there. Person #2 I know personally, interact with rarely on my part, but this female comments and "likes" my statuses once in a while. I never ever seek out girl #2's profile, and we hardly ever send personal messages to each other.

    Person #3 gets an occasional interaction on threads, and I "like" her statuses about 4 or 5 times per week, but I rarely ever check her profile either. There are 4 other females who are also constant in my 9 of whom I rarely ever send a personal message to. In fact, I've never messaged 2 of them. One female only posts once a week, if that. But constantly "likes" my posts.

    Here's the kicker...

    I attract a lot of women. It's just a fact of life. I'm not single, but I've had several women who have developed major crushes on me. I'm married with kids, and not on the "market". Neither am I some sort of playboy. My Facebook profile is clean, and always family-friendly. But from time-to-time, I get messages (both public and private) about how "good" I'm looking in some of my pictures. I know for a fact that each of the seven females that appear in my top 9 are those that have a strong attraction to me. It's cut-and-dry.

    What is even more interesting, the top 9 friends box is much more consistent with the crush-factor than the top 9 in the "InitialChatFriendsList". On a side note, you don't need to view your source code to see these people. Just turn off your messaging availability, and they will automatically populate in the "greyed out" list of your Chat Sidebar. The people in this list are populated by those of whom you have most recently been in contact with. It is far more dynamic.

    But back to the main topic... the Facebook coders are definitely up to something. This is a social network that feeds upon sparking interaction. They know good and darned well that a little controversy keeps things hot on their platform. There's no doubt about that. And it shouldn't be any surprise that the majority of people have individuals of the opposite sex populating their 9 Friends box.

    Further proof? The 2 males that stay in my 9 Box are both highly entertained by my posts. They are good friends who share common interests with me, and both of them have told me that they check my profile every day to see if I have posted a funny video, a controversial thread, or a good conversation starter of a post. They are not ashamed to admit this. And the only other 2 males that populate my 9 Box on a less frequent basis are just the same. One is a cousin, the other is a very close college buddy.

    So there you have it. Make no mistake about it, I'm thoroughly convinced that this 9 Box is not from my own doing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Side note... for those that have mentioned they believe the 9 Box is much more random if you have a huge friends list, I think my case completely refutes that point.

      Delete
    2. So your 9 did not drastically change in November? Mine did. In fact, it dropped all the men, including 2 I was wondering how they got there, and replaced it with all female family. When I do the "view as" feature, my original 9 pops back up, including the 2 men. For me, the mystery now lies in the intialchatlist/piliapp/view source. The people I chat with are low on the list and, surprise, the 2 men in question I have rarely chatted with and definitely not recently, are 1 and 4 on there. I think we each have different experiences and believe it is impossible to say either way.

      Delete
    3. Oh, yes. Back then, yes. They did do some monkeying around with it. And if you are a male, I'm not surprised by that at all. I think they are doing this opposite-gender thing to stir up interaction. I'm convinced of it.

      I have watched my InitialChatFriendsList like a hawk for a year. I look at the trends daily. I notice that people who I have conversations with on a particular day will jump up towards the top of this list. But if they aren't digging deep into my profile, they will disappear and go back downward within a day or two. Certain people stay there. Of my close friends, I will ask them what they have been doing besides chatting, and the ones who tell me they've perused my pictures after chatting (the ones comfortable enough to tell me this) will stay towards the top for a longer period of time. But after the dust settles, the InitialChatFriendsList will tend to go back to what it was a few days before. It's like clockwork.

      When you compare the chat list to the Top 9, big difference. There are people who stay on my Top 9 and don't budge at all. In the past month, I've monitored the 9. The movement that occurs comes from the ones who I know for sure are spending a considerable amount of time looking at my pictures and watching all of my videos. I have a lot of entertaining content on my page.

      InitialChatFriendsList is very dynamic. The Top 9 is not. The chat list will reflect likes, comments, conversations, and private messages to the exact amount of recent time that I spend interacting with people. The Top 9 is not dynamic, and I don't think it is based on public interaction or private messaging.... to a degree. It's still a mystery as to what this reflects, but I truly believe it is based on time spent running through my page.

      I keep a spreadsheet to track both. Since tracking these areas, I have had no surprises, or anything I can't explain. I've also done research on the search bar. When you type one letter in the search box, the names that pop up are ordered with exactness. The search names that pop up are directly in relational order to the action in the chat list, and the Top 9. It is also much less dynamic, and is ordered according to the people I dig around looking through their pages, and the time they spend looking at mine.

      In the last 30 days, I've abstained from perusing the profile pages of the people I am studying. I did this to remove any chance of the ordering of the search page based on my own action. Just as I predicted, the results fall in line directly with the Top 9 ordering. It's amazing.

      I'm betting you'll notice the same results if you track all three areas (the Top 9, the chat list, and the search box results). I'd be very curious to know if you start to notice some predictable results. Great comment, thanks for sharing!

      Delete
    4. I am a female and it was a little shocking to see all the men removed. There is one, who slowly made his way to the number one box and then was kicked off in November with the change. He, however, remains #1, sometimes moving to #2, in my chat. I haven't messaged him in months and yet there he stays. He also shows up first in search by his first name and second by his last name. In the past month, I have not gone to his profile and never really did in the past. I went through his pics once. If I do "view as", he is always in my 9 because it is the original 9. I had a coworker that is not fb friends with me or him, go to his profile. I did not show up in his 9. The thing that keeps me from getting too excited is I have an aunt that obviously spends a lot of time on my page. She's always liking old statuses, pictures and such and she is not on my 9, buried way down in chat and low on search. I'd love to think my male friend is on my page (secret crush, he has no clue)but I'm not convinced. We have had many emails outside of fb and I wonder if that has something to do with it and it's just wishful thinking on my part.

      Delete
    5. Very strange indeed. I can't explain the randomness of some people's 9 Box that seems to exist right at the same time of the exactness of my predictable 9 Box. Could it possibly be due to Facebook activity level? Is there possibly not enough "data" on Facebook for the algorithms to predict the human behavior of your circles accurately? I do a TON of interacting, and the people in my 9 Box are either moderately active to super active. But my #1 position is occupied by the person who is moderate on activity level. So that could be considered evidence to the contrary. I could be "lucky" that all of this is so clear to me via my account. But believe me, I DO know who my "stalkers" (more like heavy admirers) are. And they are ALL pegged in my 9 Box, chat list, and search.

      Delete
  53. It's been a long time since I have been here and these past few days I have been getting on Facebook. I posted some pictures on Facebook recently and my crushed liked one. That really sent me over the moon. Today we had a conversation. It made me feel like a school girl. There is a smile on my face. I'm soooo excited over this. Not sure if this has changed my algorithm, but I can say for a while now he has been number 2.

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  54. I started searching through my search history and counted the times I had visited a profile since fb started tracking in Sept. 2012. Before my 9 changed drastically in November, I had searched my #2 16 times; my #1 (and my crush) 29 times and oddly, another person 58 times and he never made it into my 9. All those in my 9 now, there is no search history, with the exception of my sister. My old #1 had next to no interaction and a handful of chats. In my mind, there was definitely a mutual visitation of profiles. I don't know any other possibility it could be. Also, my crush that was #1 in my old 9 is still my #1 in chat and we haven't chatted in months. And the clincher? He just liked a post of mine from 2 days ago..

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    1. Well how about that... this definitely falls in line with everything I have observed in my testing the past month. Good post!

      Delete
    2. I started looking into this about 4 months ago so I stopped going to people's pages and really limited my likes and comments. I haven't liked or commented on anything of my crush since because I did not want me to influence the results. So, in 4 months, he liked a handful of my statuses, commented on one and a brief chat. I had way more communication collectively with others. Also, when I counted from my search, there were others I had searched for and visited since Sept. 2012 but I really didn't report them and they came and went. The person I reported as searching 58 times never even came into my top 60 (he was my experiment)! He isn't very active on facebook and it is possible that is part of the reason. Doubt we will ever know definitively but I feel pretty confident my crush is coming to my page now (especially when he liked an old post!).

      Delete
  55. Still interested in android's app, where under the settings menu you select "friends" (right near newfeed), and it will reflect the top 6 accurately, but the next 5-10 are a mish-mash of your 7-9 spots (who occasionally rotate) and people who seem a bit random. My ex-crush is usually there, anywhere from what would be slot 9-15. Extremely limited interaction for some time. And again, mostly men.

    When it comes to graph search "My friends" or "Friends of XXX" (whatever it is), my ex-crush is right there at #1, even though our message history was deleted, we don't really interact...my old #1 is a friend I had a thing with and admits to stalking my page.

    A1

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    1. oh yes, and due to a disturbance, i briefly un-friended my former #1, and then re-added. they're at the freaking bottom of my graph search now. i'd also deleted chat history.

      A1

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  56. Has anyone noticed the ranking used to target you with 'Find Mutual Friends' ads in the right-hand column? It pops up with the message 'x recently added 00 friends. +1 Do you know any of them?'. It doesn't prioritise the people with the most new friends, or the ones I've looked at lately.

    For a while I was getting totally spammed with 'Find Mutual Friends' messages for one new friend. Now I get the same few in a similar order over and over. Some days none appear, then others plenty. I'm wondering whether it's to do with who's interacted and who's online.

    But - here's the thing - it's a different order of friends from the Keesh list or the chat list, or the nine, or even the four who appear on your 'about' page on the mobile app. though some people turn up in each.
    kb

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  57. very interesting topic.. My first ranking is my crush. I always stalking him..view his pictures,view his comments appeared from my wall and etc.. but i don't know whether he also stalking me.. who knows.. hehe :). My second ranking is my best friend..We always chat together, reply the comments ect.. My third one is someone involve in charity program.. I always view his comments, his pictures and sometimes visit his wall. The forth is also my best friend.. we always chatting together etc.. Same with the fifth.. The sixth is a motivator. I added him and always like his status.. The seventh is also my good friend, sometimes we chat and reply the comments.. The eighth is also my friend..I think she always stalk me.. And the last one is my youngest sister..

    I'm very interested with my first ranking.. I'm just curious if i'm the most one who stalk him or he also did the same thing??? What should I do??? :)

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  58. Can you just ask from Facebook? Lots of people curiousssss about this..

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  59. facebook is of course trying to play matchmaker (to an extent) but zuckerberg wouldn't give up that info for all the silicon in the valley.

    A1

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  60. Have you noticed the order of likes in the iPhone app? I posted a new profile picture on 1/5 which my crush liked - he was approx. number 20 out of 40 or so people. When I look at the people who liked my picture using the web version, they show up in the order that they liked the post with most recent like being at the top of the list. When I view this in the iPhone app, the order is different. My crush was listed second until about a week ago when he dropped to sixth. The other people listed in the top 6 are people that I interact with frequently and they swap positions here and there. This morning, he was listed first and then by midday had dropped back to six. We have almost zero Facebook interaction - I think this is the only like between us and once he sent me a suggested page to like (which I did not), however, I used to view his profile very frequently before we were friends on Facebook (we friended last July) and since then have only visited it on occasion.

    Do you think there is any significance to this? Especially, the jump to number 1 this morning and then back to 6?

    With the previous 9 box, he was listed as #2 beginning when we friended in July. He stayed #2 for a couple months and then dropped out although he would appear every so often in the bottom 7, 8 or 9. As of the new algorithm, he has never shown up in my 9. He is listed as #2 in my graph search. Makes an appearance in my Find Friends list and only showed up in my chat list once, for a few days, after inviting me to like a page.

    I am curious to hear your take on this 

    LM

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    1. Interesting, LM, regarding the iPhone app. i;m very curious to test out my account on one (have a 'droid). when you look up "friends" either near the top of the sidebar menu right under "newsfeed" (sometimes it's listed under "apps"), do your 7-9 computer people swap out too?

      A1

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    2. Hi A1, when I look up friends under apps, they are listed alphabetically. I will charge up my old droid and check both the like order on my pic and friends list order and let you know if the FB app works the same.

      Since my last post, crush sent me another suggested page to like. The pages are all related to his work and I'm sure sent out to many others. This time I did like the page and since then he flipped back and forth between 1st and 6th in my picture likes all day yesterday and today has stayed at #1. He has not shown up in my chat list as he did the last time.

      I am still curious if this is my doing... or his????

      LM

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    3. A1 - I checked the FB app on my droid and the picture likes list is in the order in which they liked it. I also checked my friends list and it is a random order - not alphabetical. I can view this order in the mobile FB version on my iPhone. I have wondered if it means anything. In looking through it, my close friends are listed first, followed by friends and then acquaintances. The order does seem to have some significance; however, there are people that I interact with more that are lower in the list than others that I do not really interact with.

      My 7-9 in the desktop version do swap out on occasion. I have noticed that it is due to my interaction. I liked 2 pictures that a friend posted within a couple days of each other and he popped into 9 box temporarily. Usually my 7-9 are the same people - they just change position. My 2-6 change order also and again it is the same people moving around. Number 1 stays the same - it's my Mom so that's ok :)

      LM

      Delete
    4. my #1 is someone who i always like his status.. always read his comments, view his profiles, view his images lots.. We have a chat only once.. and i started the chat.. I don't think he view my profile.. he never like my status..He never know me.. I thought the #1 is a person who we always stalk.. hehe

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  61. so, when can we conclude all of this? hurmm

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  62. At the end I've decided to comment, I've enjoyed sooo much your discussion and it brought me to "study" fb friends phenomena. I'm from Italy, actually I don't know if and how many major differences there are between US and European Fb. For sure my new 9 friends box is fixed, no changes since November and it's a male/female list: #1 is the person with whom I chat the most, #2 lot of mutual interaction, #3-2, #4-5-7-9 mutual interaction, but for long periods we facebook-ignore each other, #6 good friend, few Fb interaction #8 no interaction, no chat, I don't check his profile and he doesn't check mine. Only thing they have in common is that they are the people that writes on my page or tag me in pictures and posts.
    PiliApp... Oh my goodness, what you've taught me. It's kind of an obsession! What I figured out is that it chances constantly, Fb gives a sort of ranking for the type of different interaction (it seems that a click on your link makes the person rise one or two positions, if he enters in your profile he gets up of 8-9 positions, private messages seem to have the heaviest weight). The ChatList can be read in two ways: momentary changes of ranking (as soon as an action is done) and stable positon in the chart. It seems it's the result of two logarithms, the stable position is something related to total interaction and the period since you've been friends. Usually new friends are higher, because it's quite normal there's a mutual profile-checking in a short period, then began the decline. What I can't understand is the role of your own actions in the ranking, sometimes they count making the friend go up, sometimes seems they don't count. For sure in the highest positions we find people with whom we interact the most, who comments or likes our posts, tags you, profile-checks ecc. It seems your actions aren't so important, the impact on the chart is just temporary... then the person will get back to the position he had before.

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    1. my #1 is someone who i always like his status.. always read his comments, view his profiles, view his images lots.. We have a chat only once.. and i started the chat.. I don't think he view my profile.. he never like my status..He never know me.. I thought the #1 is a person who we always stalk.. hehe

      Delete
    2. The fact is that I'm a good guinea-pig: I've signed up one year ago, I have just 170 friends and I accept rarely new request and I have an egocentered approach to Fb (I'm not a good stalker).. for me it's easier to look after these variables. I've found this blog several months ago when a guy I really like and is a sort of well-known (Iwouldn't say celebrity) television host appeared in my 9-fr-box. As I didn't look at his profile too much and those times I've checked I was overwhelmed by a "Oh My God! Can he see me?Better leave before it's too late" psychosis, that was really strange. What I can say is that my #1 is (in both 9box and piliapp) always my best friend, although for sure we don't check each other's profile. PiliApp it's for sure a chat-based chart, pr.mess. exchancing brings people really high... but it's something that doesn't last, they slowly get back to their original place (that I think is a sum of interaction related to time). But I also think Fb gives a score to every type of actions, and ours have a less high grade. If you heavily stalk someone your actions compared with other's and related to time bring this person at the highest positions. This system is a way to let Fb what we like and what other people like, "higher positioned" are people of whom we'll see more updates. If they put everything in the initial page (do you call it newsfeed?) without an order, we would get bored and leave the platform. Fb has developed a way to give us what we want, we should want, we may want. PiliApp is a good tool if you know how to read it and if you don't mess it with new friends and a lot of chats. The guy I was talking before, no major interaction, no stalking by me, just a few messages he send me last month (?!?So I wasn't into an erotomaniac delirium) and just a few likes, has always been between 20 and 30 in the PiliApp and in the Top20friends. If I post photos for sure, and this is an emprical experimet I put up, he gains at least 8 positions and get stable for a longer period in the 20s sector. I know, but it's really hard to give a sense in a foreign language to these ideas.

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    3. so, I can concluded that I've stalked him alots and he became my #1 right? :)

      Delete
    4. What I've found out is just my opinion on what Fb is on.. Just try for 10 days to stop stalking him, but usally in the first positions I have people with whom I have mutual interactions. Maybe he's checking too.

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    5. yeah,you'r right.. he's now dropped into #2.. My #1 is my friend with alot of mutual interaction.. hehe :)

      Delete
  63. To keep consistency in my anonymous posts, let's call me "XYZ" from now on. I've posted several times in the past month. Well, I am CONVINCED now more than ever that Facebook is playing match-maker. My top 9 is a hot bed for girls that I know full-well have an all-out crush on me. Plus it has 2 guys. One is a good friend who just enjoys my entertaining posts, and the other is a very social type of guy, married with kids, but strikes me as "suspect". I'm wondering if he might have alternative motivations that keep him on my page.

    Whatever the case, I have pegged everyone using the Top 9, the InitialFriendsChatList (which by the way, you can see this if you turn off chat, and then look at the top people listed who are greyed out. But it won't go past 3, I think), and from the search bar sorting. I have concluded that there's plenty of monkey business going on, and it's not at all due to my own actions.

    I have one annoying person (female) who has a fairly significant crush on me, who will pop in after I entertain her with answering a private message. Once I start ignoring her, she probably raids my profile. I noticed that she will stay #1 on InitialFriendsChatList for a week or two until she calms down. But she won't break into the Top 9. I've noticed that the girls in the Top 9 who are stalking me, I give all of them at least a minimal amount of attention both publicly and privately on FB.

    This is all seriously entertaining, and I just love digging around the three areas to see who's spending a little too much time on my profile. What's really funny is when I see one of the girls in public, then they pop in on one of the areas without me doing anything. Busted!

    My wife will pop in 2 of the areas, but not the Top 9. She's in and out on the other 2, and we do interact on Facebook when we are separated by work. She watches the "suspect" girls like a hawk, and she knows who they are (LOL). We take a lot of pictures together, and we keep a pretty public profile. If you couldn't match me from the previous post, I'm sort of a public figure. So that's why I get a little extra-curricular attention from a lot of women (and some guys :p)

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  64. anybody using Paper for iOS? http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/03/paper-now-available-for-ios-in-the-us-and-it-could-be-a-facebook-replacement/

    very curious what shows up. i need to convince a friend with an iphone to install this.

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  65. remind me - did we ever come up with a plausible meaning for the -0, -2, and -3 ID designators?

    A1

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    1. No, I got never any answer to that question, but can tell you that -2 is for chat/messages for sure, new friends for sure, and probably - probably! - for (mutual) views; -0 and -3 goes always together, can drop (go far away on the list) a lot from -2 for the same person and are probably for other interactions, public interactions

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  66. XYZ, yes, the top Timeline 9 all have some mix of public/private interaction (or only public). 8 of them are male, with me being a hetero female. Nobody with whom I mostly interact with privately shows up there. However, using Graph Search, under "My Friends," these people are always in the top slots (same with "Photos of my Friends." They are most often boys with whom I've had...encounters with. Some I'm still very friendly with. Some are gal pals and gay male friends whom I know view my posts but seldom interact (aside from the occasional message) - plus we're tagged in things together, etc. These are people I consider my "BFFs" and have been FB friends with for years.

    A1

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    1. XYZ here, and I have more DEFINITE proof that the search box (when you type a letter or 2) results have a STRONG determining factor that proves my theory without a doubt. Check my post... it's coming.

      Delete
  67. I've been questioning only because there are a couple of people who show up that I don't have much interaction with. Well, one who I don't really know and the other I used to interact with a lot but not anymore. I'm pretty active on FB too. So here's my nine.

    1 - A good male friend who tags me on pictures, likes and comments occasionally on my posts. Mostly tagged in pictures though.
    2 - I've never talked to him. He's a big local DJ who added me through mutual friends possibly. Still don't know how he found me. I've messaged him once with 1 question about an event. I've liked his posts occasionally but not nearly as much as some of my other friends who do not even appear on my top 9.
    3 - A girlfriend that I barely interact with anymore. I used to like a lot of posts and vice versa but she doesn't show on my news feed as much as she used to. I know that she does visit my page and occasionally goes through my pictures to like them.
    4 - My brother in law. He and I interact often on FB.
    5 - A girlfriend of mine who I also interact with often on FB.
    6 - My sister. She doesn't on FB often but we like each other pictures and posts when she does login.
    7 - A girlfriend who I noticed is new to the top 9 the past week. She recently liked and commented on a lot of my posts.
    8 - A guy friend. We comment and like each others' posts pretty often.
    9 - My boyfriend. He does not post a whole lot of FB but I know he visits my page a lot because he will always ask about a post or comment. But he doesn't like or comment on my posts often.

    What throws me off is #2 and #3. I don't interact much with #3 anymore but I know for a fact that she occasionally goes through my page to look at pictures. #2 The DJ, I don't interact with much let alone ever talked to him in person. He has only liked one of my posts.

    My theory is that your top 9 obviously are people who you interact with most. But I also think they are people who may be viewing your profile often or going through pictures based off of my relationship with #3 and possibly my boyfriend.

    There are people who like my posts all the time but they do not show up on my top 9 ever. So basically they are people you have back and forth interactions with or someone who goes through your profile aka stalker. But a stalker might not be the case either.

    Second theory. #2 and #3 also have a crap load of friends. Like in the thousands. So my second theory is that they could possibly be "popular" individuals. The friends with the most friends because if someone is popular, you should interact with them, right? It seems to make sense for them to rank on your top 9 if they have a huge number of friends.

    I'll be more than happy to get some feedback on what you guys think of my theories. Thanks for sharing yours!

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    1. My number one question on my above post is... Could #2, the DJ possibly be stalking me or be one of my crush? Or is he just on my top nine because he has thousands of friends being a well known DJ? Just a note, he added me... the mutual friends I have with him were people who added him.

      Delete
    2. Hye.. yeah, i love your comment and i most interested in our #2 and #3.. Maybe we have the same situation.. I thought your second theory is might be right.. Actually my #2 is someone who involve in charity.. I always visit his profile, like his pictures, view his comments some time i'm just like be a stalker to him.. He has 2000++ friends and he is popular to me and some individuals maybe.. Andddd, i like him too.. I don't know if he also view my profile.. And if he did, I'm the most happy person in the world! haha :)

      And my #3 is someone also has a page and involve in a charity.. I always like his post, view his comments.. but I don't think he visit my profile because he has 4000++ of friends.. Maybe based on your second theory, he is popular among my friends in facebook..

      Btw, i'm really curious about my #2.. Is he also stalk me in facebook? :)

      -Tassy2608-

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  68. Yeah people in my 1-3 spots are very popular, though we do have mutual interaction; one I mostly just comment/like/share news/commentary; don't think we've ever chatted and don't think there's any "stalking" happening. "Popularity" is likely a factor. Actually, a number of my top 9 fit this criteria.

    Btw, I absolutely hate the new newsfeed. I get almost nothing from anyone; just news sites I've liked and yes, do share a fair amount of, but iImiss my friends' statuses! Now I must "get updates from" and though posting frequency is relatively low and I don't have a ton of friends, it's manageable - but still! even people i regularly comment/like are gone. Facebook is turning into it's IOS app, Paper. ARGH.

    -A1

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  69. I most curious with the person in #2.. I read all the comments up there, so what can we conclude about all of this.. I'm very sure the # 1 is person who always interact with us..How about no 2?

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  70. my #2 is someone whose posts i routinely share and comment on. they comment/like some of mine, as well. it's going to be unique for everyone to an extent. what you must always ask yourself is, "what the settings for my friends? do i have anyone starred? is everyone listed the same? do i get notifications for some and not others?" for example, when you first friend someone they will be listed as "friends" with a check mark, and if they have the option turned on, you will be automatically their follower. this skews things. i leave everyone as acquaintances. everyone. i get notices for almost all people b/c my friends list is small enough; most people i know don't post that often and the new newsfeed sucks balls and i miss out on too much otherwise. although, there is a way around this, using the "Interests" feature.

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    1. just like me, the #2 is also someone who i routinely like his posts as well as always view his comments,, but he never like my posts.. maybe he also view my comments as well or stalk me?

      Delete
  71. I have to say, too, that I think a lot of people in my top 9 have me starred (again, I have no one starred). I know a couple do for certain. But the rest? Well, many of them have a shit-ton of friends and followers - MUCH more than me. So while they comment/like a fair amount, my content shouldn't be showing up in their feed much, especially since the news-centric change that occurred 2-3 weeks ago (you won't know this unless you "like" and share a bunch of news content and popular page updates). I mean, think about it - you have 2,000 friends/followers compared to my 200, and god knows how many "liked" pages - you really shouldn't be seeing my thrice-liked status update and commenting on it unless you have me starred or get notices from me. People in the second and third row, especially - even if they don't have a lot of friends, they will invariably report or like/comment on something of mine I posted maybe a day ago, maybe hours ago. There are other people like this but they don't show in the top 9, probably because I don't have much of a history commenting on/liking/sharing their posts; we're not tagged in anything together; our main interaction is via chat....

    A1

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  72. It seems ever since the change, I have noticed daily subtle changes making it harder and harder to see anything. My 9 is stagnant, never changes and remains female relatives only. I have a female relative constantly looking through my photos and always commenting. She is no where near my top 20, very low on initialchat, definitely not in my 9, low in the search box and no "suggested" anything comes from her. All the clues that used to be there are gone. The one person that used to be my number one in my 9 and on chat, is nowhere near any of the above either anymore. The only clue I had he was on my page was the fact he liked a post that was 3 days old. I've given up.
    AM

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  73. XYZ here... new evidence. I read a post on a thread in a forum that confirms all of my observations about the search bar suggestions. It was a female who told this story. She started dating a guy, and before they entered into a relationship, the first name suggestion when she typed the letter "H" was a good friend of hers, and certain other individuals that she suspected. What happened next was quite surprising. The best friend of the person who she is now dating (who is NOT a Facebook friend) pops up consistently in the #1 suggested name position on the search bar. She has never met him, viewed his profile, or interacted with him on Facebook in any way. But it gets better...

    Now all of the family members of her boyfriend are popping up when typing the first letter of their names. They are all checking her out, and digging through her profile. She has also had no contact with any of the family members of said significant other as of yet. She's been monitoring this on a daily basis.

    What she thinks is factoring in to this algorithm is not only the amount of visits to her profile by these people, but the TIME SPENT rummaging through her posts and pictures. This is exactly what I observed studying the search bar suggestions through my own account. The weight given to visits and time spent is definitely a lot heavier than how the initialchatfriends list, and the Top 9 box. IntitialChatFriends gives much more weight on RECENT lurking and recent interactions.

    As for InitialChatFriends, I have noticed over the last month that people will rise to the top of the list without any interaction from me, and they can move down the list (or even disappear) within a 24 hour period. It's a lot more dynamic. And of course we know that InitialChatFriends only includes Facebook friends.

    As for the Top 9, I noticed that it is consistent no matter what, and is much less dynamic. And the bonus observation that I picked up on is that they will scramble the order of the Top 9 that you are viewing of your friends profiles, but it will rotate in 1 or 2 each time you refresh. You'll never know which person is in the #1 position of a friend's Top 9, only your own. But they rotate in a couple of people that are within the top 12 just to throw you off, and keep confidential those who are in closest contact with their profiles.

    It's pretty fascinating. I'm sure FB does not want us to know this, and they slightly cover their tracks. But it is more or less consistent, and by using the combination of the three, you can in fact make some educated guesses as to who it is spending the most time creeping on your profile.

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    1. I don't understand why mine is so different. My search bar (unless there's another search I am not aware of) always shows me the last profile I was at or had interaction with. There are never people showing up that aren't friends of mine or anything like that. If I go to the my sister's page, she shows up first for both first and last name initials. And the people that follow whoever is first, are people that have recently commented, liked or shared something of mine. It doesn't give any clues to someone spending time on my page, including someone I know is always there.
      AM

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    2. Are you typing one letter at a time and allowing the search function to suggest names, or are you typing in entire names? If I type an "a", I will get a list of 5 or 6 people before I enter in a full name. Try that and see what happens!
      -XYZ

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    3. Yes, I type 1 letter at a time. I would really love to believe the person coming up first under "T" is looking at me but like I said, we have a lot of emails through gmail. Last night I searched a different "T" just to check and sure enough, she was number 1 this morning and he was number 2. I'm going to see if it will rotate and he's number 1 again. It appears to happen that way but there's so much contact outside of fb, I just can't say either way.
      AM

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  74. Yeah, the search bar doesn't work like that for me. You have Graph Search? I switched over some time ago. Mine are definitely people's whose pages I've viewed - friends and otherwise - as well as group pages. There is very little reason to suspect they'd be visiting me, except for maybe a couple, but it's doubtful.
    A1

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    1. No, I don't have it but guess I should check it out. I did notice today though on my search bar is someone coming up I hope is checking me out. I went to a group page that started with same initial as his name to prove to myself it's where I've been. Today it rotated and he is back on top and I have only been to his page once this year. We do however have a lot of emails between us (outside of facebook..he's my child's teacher) and thought that might be why he was at number one in search. Considering facebook uses email contacts for recruiting friends, anything outside of facebook can't be ruled out.
      AM

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    2. good point, always assumed email was being factored, even phone numbers (though i don't have mine linked with facebook). would make a lot of sense.

      A1

      Delete
    3. I deleted FB Messenger recently as I noticed FB can spot my private communication with people outside of facebook via Messenger - there is actually a lot of talk about that and privacy on fb at the moment. I also removed my email and connected a totally new email to my fb account which I now use for fb only. That changed some things a lot. And finally I checked off the option to merge fb contacts/connections with non-fb friends - remeber, when using FB on your phone, it tracks data from your cell phone and use them as it want. So now I cleaned my fb account from all external factors that can confuse me. Still, I use Viber for job purpose and one of co-workers who is using it as well is constantly on my chat bar at the top despite I have no interactions with her on fb at all ever. As I do not like her at all, that annoys me and I believe our connection via Viber counts as FB interaction - maybe not. But if not, then the thought about her checking my profile is a thought I hate. Think that chat bar (when turned off) shows last interactions from probably last 24 hours

      Delete
    4. Actually it is not something I think, I dare to claime :) Chat bar (turned off) will show new added friends, friends you chatted with and people interacting your account anyhow: by directly visiting your profile, or click on your photos, images, statuses from their mainpage/newsfeed, by liking, commenting your posts on their newsfeed or your profile page etc
      Somebody wrote Graph search is more accurat and updated regarding interactions - yes I agree 200% , I can almost see who checks on me as they move up and I never check them or click on anything of theirs

      Delete
  75. If you say people are stalking us by using search bar, you are wrong.. When we type a letter on the search bar, the people come out are people who we had search before.. I did it alot.. I thought the person who in #2 is someone who we are always/sometime view his profile,view his comments etc. Same goes the that person.. He/She also visit our profile,view our comments etc..

    ReplyDelete
  76. We still don't have the answers... What to do! I really want to know..

    ReplyDelete
  77. Here's an interesting observation: my ex, my crush and I all have the same first initial. If I type L into my search bar, I am listed first, my ex is next and crush third. Last night, crush and ex swapped places in the web version (iPhone/iPad apps did not change). I have not looked at either of their timelines, liked, commented, hovered over anything they've posted, etc. I have been very careful to not interact with them at all. Today the order switched back...

    LM

    ReplyDelete
  78. I deactivated my facebook and created a new page, friending only 50 people. I knew one of my friends would be all over my new page. He quickly jumped to number one in search, number two in chat, top 20 friends without me going to his profile, searching him or commenting, liking anything of his. He has liked only one of my statuses. He is nowhere near my top 9. I also friended a man I have always wondered if there was anything between. He stayed very low until I visited his profile. He too has jumped to the top of everything but nowhere near my 9. I visited a few other profiles (people I knew would not be visiting mine) and they have stayed at the bottom. One other notable thing, I had read somewhere when going into "find friends", refreshing the page several times and seeing who shows up in the "mutual friends of" section, is indicative of profile visitors. My good friend, that I know visits my profile, shows up consistently now. The other man does not however. Curious if I will continue to be able see more clearly who comes to my profile.
    AM

    ReplyDelete
  79. Hmm, I don't know if the find friends thing is a good indicator. I have certainly had fb "stalkers" (lurkers, i prefer to call them), but their friends do not show up there - just people i have a of mutual friends with, moreorless in # of connections.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. just to clarify, this is using graph search's "who you might know"

      Delete
  80. Guys.. I've asked 2 friends about their top 9 friends in facebook...This is what can i conclude. The #1 is someone who always interact with us..whether we stalk them, at the same time they also stalk us..

    The #2 is quite unique.. My #2 is someone who I always stalk him, liked his posts, view his comments and pictures.. but he never like my posts.He does't know me.. We just chat once.. He always upload pictures and I always view his pictures when it appear to my newsfeed.. When I asked my officemate, his #2 is his wife.. He told that maybe his wife always stalk him, but he told me he always view his kids's pictures that uploaded by his wife.. Then, i asked my bestfriend.. Her #2 is brother-in-law.. She told me that, she never chat and stalk him, but she always view and like the pitures uploaded from her brother-in-law

    So, I can concluded that #2 is someone who we always view his/her pictures as well as like the puctures..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can can't make a conclusion based on a sample size of 2. They use thousands of metrics. My 2 is someone's whose content I do share quite often, but he was in the #3 spot for a long time. It had nothing to do with pictures, however, or visiting their page. It's just interaction. It also depends on if you have anyone starred, categorized specially, etc. First you must change all your friends to the same status - mine are all "acquaintances." That helps with testing, a bit. The only questionable spots we keep seeing are 6-9. When you use the Android app, for instance, and search "Friends" (usually under "Apps" or just near the top of the sidebar), the top 6 will be in the same order, but the people after them will not be the same 6-9 on your page, though there will likely be some overlap.

      Delete
    2. thats mean person who in #2 is someone who had starred us?

      -TR-

      Delete
  81. I agree on #2 "My #2 is someone who I always stalk him, liked his posts, view his comments and pictures.. but he never like my posts.He does't know me.. We just chat once.. He always upload pictures and I always view his pictures when it appear to my newsfeed.. "

    Exactly the way I notice. #2 for me is an acquaintance but a good photographer, I view his photos and like them, but never interact otherwise, and highly doubt he viewed mine, and never liked my post/pics.

    ReplyDelete
  82. I'm also interested with my #2.. So,anyone of us which your #2 is someone you think he/her stalk you or you are always stalk him/her (including like his/her photos, view comments, ect)..

    We can discuss here..

    -TR-

    ReplyDelete
  83. My #2 is the girl I liked atm and I think she may have some interests in me too. She is changing to #1 to #2 for several days. I liked her posts and photos and she does the same for me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ermm...so maybe person in #2 is someone who we are always stalk him/her including view his/her photos,comments etc and at the same time he/she also do the same thing..

      -TR-

      Delete
    2. If stalking is mutual for both persons yeah this could be correct but am I showing up in her top 9? who knows...

      Delete
    3. you better ask her..haha.. who knows.. we can get more hint! ;)

      -TR-

      Delete
    4. ahah true but the fact is that we are not living in the same country :)

      Delete
  84. ask her through facebook chat! you cam make it as your first move to know her! :)

    ReplyDelete
  85. My #1 and #2 are still static at the position..The #3 and #4 sometimes change each other.. and the #5, #6,#7,#8 and #9 are changing each other every time i refresh my page.. Who is actually #1 and #2.. I read the comment before,I agreed that #1 is someone who always stalk us.. but #2 is quite weird.. I don't know who is he.. but sometimes i likes his status, view his comments and pictures...

    ReplyDelete
  86. No. 1
    Best friend
    lots of messages, photos, comments, likes etc

    No. 2
    male friend
    known to have a crush on me (according to various sources)
    although we talk in person we have very little facebook interaction
    occasional tagged photo but that's about it

    No. 3
    close friend
    not many messages but some likes and a number of tagged photos
    I look at her profile maybe a couple of times a week

    No. 4
    one of my best friends from back home
    used to be very close with tonnes of messages, photos, wall posts, likes etc but no facebook interaction in a good 3 months (we mainly just text)

    No. 5
    Close friend and housemate
    we message occasionally but not often at all (we live together, we just talk in person)
    some mutually tagged photos
    we don't communicate a lot online BUT she is a self-diagnosed facebook stalking addict who when bored will sit there and look through her friends profiles for hours (including mine)

    No. 6
    Close friend, but we text not facebook message
    we are sometimes tagged in the same post and photos

    No. 7
    Weird one. My boyfriends best friend
    we may occasionally have a photo together and like posts but we almost never message

    No. 8
    Another housemate
    again we don't really talk on facebook at all
    we have a few photos tagged together but much less than other people who don't show up in the list
    I know he used to have a thing for me but I'm unsure if that's still the case or not

    No. 9
    Probably the strangest addition on this list
    He is another housemate who very rarely uses facebook
    We never message using facebook, have almost no photos tagged together (and those where we are are from at least a year ago)
    We don't like eachothers posts and I can honestly say I never look at his profile. Like ever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. so, you always stalk that guy who whose in no 2? or he always stalk you?

      Delete
    2. I don't know if he stalks mine (I can only assume) but I have never stalked his profile. I look at it maybe a couple of times a week but I have tonnes of other friends who I stalk and talk to more on facebook who appear on the list.


      My list also changed slightly this morning- here's the updated version

      No. 1 - REMAINS AT NUMBER 1
      No. 2 - DROPPED TO NUMBER 2
      No. 3 - DROPPED TO NUMBER 6
      No. 4 - RISEN TO NUMBER 2
      No. 5 - RISEN TO NUMBER 4
      No. 6 - RISEN TO NUMBER 5
      No. 7 - ABSENT FROM MY NEW TOP 9
      No. 8 - ABSENT FROM MY NEW TOP 9
      No. 9 - RISEN TO NUMBER 7 (really really odd...)

      the two new ones who have appeared on my list

      New No. 8- My boyfriend. Occasional messages on facebook but he doesn't really use it and I only occasionally look at his profile.
      New No. 9- One of my old friends from back home. Not any tagged pictures for over a year, we occasionally like a post or picture but almost no recent messages and I basically never look at her profile

      Delete
    3. sorry I meant to say I have tonnes of other friends who I stalk and talk to more on facebook who DON'T appear on the list. Which is why I think that the other person's stalking factor must be taken into account.
      For example, I have a friend back home who doesn't appear on the list at all.
      We message a fair bit, like eachothers photos and I look at her profile a fair bit just to see what she's up to.
      That being said, I'm fairly certain she doesn't look at mine all too much since we mostly run in different circles these days and doesn't generally like my posts etc.
      However, if facebook prioritized my messaging, stalking etc habits she would be in the top list no doubt because I'm always having a bit of a nose on her profile.

      Delete
  87. Some observations on the friend list
    1. The 'nine friends' you see and the one that others see seem to be different. The 'nine friends' that you see seem to be ordered, and people will bubble up and down. Other people seeeing your 'nine friends' will be randomized, and generally overlap only with the bottom friends on your 'nine friends'
    2. Viewing https://www.facebook.com//friends will also randomize, but seemingly in tiers of twenty. The 'nine friends' that you and others see will always be from the top tier.
    3. The mobile version of friends (https://m.facebook.com/...?v=friends) seems similar to the desktop, but it doesn't randomize at all. I suspect that this is the unrandomized ordered list and we're looking at some view of how facebook sorts your friends.
    4. I've seen only a weak correlation between the friend lists above and the InitialChatFriendsList

    ReplyDelete
  88. The mobile version of friends (https://m.facebook.com/...?v=friends) seems to be the "true" order. Using the equivalent on the deskop (https://www.facebook.com/.../friends) is the above order, with each tier of twenty friends shuffled randomly, but the tiers themselves are intact.

    Your nine friends on your profiler always seem to always come out of the first tier of twenty; perhaps it grabs the first tier and weights them somehow, perhaps according to photo tags.

    The nine friends that others see seem to be completely different; they seem to come from the second half of the first tier of twenty, but completely random.

    ReplyDelete
  89. Has anyone noticed a recent change in their top 9? Mine has shuffled around as of today. I'm wondering if there's yet another change in the algorithm. Thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
  90. Mine have been the same for a long time

    ReplyDelete
  91. So I've had an experience where the person that was at the top of my InitialChatFriendsList was appearing and disappearing out of my top 9. That stopped, but then this behavior started up again around the same time with a different person. Has anybody seen this?

    ReplyDelete
  92. So this is more on the "Search" side of things than the 9 friends side, but I was curious as to why this would be happening:

    When I put in the first letter of someone's name in to the search bar it shows me 3 people I'm friends with, followed by one that I'm not friends with (but have about 4 or 5 mutual friends with at best from what I saw), and then 3 more I am friends with (and have had recent interactions with).

    Is there any rhyme or reason as to why this person I'm not friends with pops up before the other three that I am friends with and have interacted with recently?

    Just curious as to how that whole thing works, I found it really odd and random.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No idea; in practice the search bar seems to be _directly_ related to my interactions, which is not the same as my friends list.

      Delete
    2. Possibly Instagram searches play a role in your FB search bar?? I noticed that my crushes sister now shows up first in my FB search when I type in the first letter of her name and she is now listed above one of my close friends who i interact with regularly on FB who is also in my 9 friends box. I thought this was odd since I don't view my crushes sister on FB and we're not friends. Originally I thought that possibly he had told her about me and she was looking me up on FB. Then the Instagram search dawned on me since I do check her account occasionally (we do not follow each other).

      Delete
    3. So you have not even done one search on FB but you have on Instragram and they show up? Interesting.

      It should be possible to repeat this experiment. Try searching for someone else on Instagram and see if they show up (I don't use Instagram or I would have done this myself)

      Delete
    4. I have searched her on FB and viewed her profile but not in a very long time. She has always been in the list, however, was much lower. He has been contacting me more in the last few months and himself was starting to drop down in graph searches until he started texting me again and now is at the top. Again, maybe it is because I view his Instagram (we do not follow each other, only FB friends) and not that he is viewing my profile??? As for his sister, I do not even search for her Instagram directly, I pull up one of his photos that she liked and link to hers that way.

      I am now regularlly pulling up his best friends girlfriends Instagram to see if she shows up in my FB search. I am not FB friends or Instagam follower for this girl so it will be interesting to see what happens!! I will keep you posted.

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    6. Instagram seems to have no effect on the FB search bar. Crush's sister has moved back to her original position in the list and no longer appears first. I will keep watch, however, I do not think that my actions caused her to move temporarily to the top,

      Delete
    7. It would have made sense with the IG since I do sometimes link to hers the way you said you link to your crush's sister's account, but if it has nothing to do with it, then I have no idea what it is. I don't typically look at this person's Facebook - haven't in ages, although now that she pops up it make me curious so I've clicked on it more recently, but I legit can't see anything but profile pic updates, cover photo updates and things she tags people we are both friends in. I initially thought maybe it meant she was viewing me as well but did we debunk that theory too?

      Delete
    8. I think it may mean that they have been looking at your profile. I don't know what else it could be. Crushes sister has never moved up in my search list. Other friends move up and down and usually it is because I interacted with them recently. I don't know how else to explain why someone I am not friends with (and have never met) would be listed first for a few days right after he started texting me again.

      Delete
  93. So my boyfriend has facebook and is friends with a lot of people that I am and I never show up on his top 9 but all 3 of his exes are always somewhere in the top 9. Why is this? Not to sound petty but after reading this, I'm a little concernced that maybe he still has a thing for them or is still communicating. He rarely ever posts anything ever or likes anything. So what could this be?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When you look at his 9 are you looking from your profile or his? If you are logged in as yourself and you view his timeline, his 9 will be more a result of your actions than his. For example, you have probably (ok, most likely lol) pulled up the 3 exes timelines and that is what is putting them in the 9. If you are looking at his 9 while logged in as him, that is what we are all here trying to figure out and it seems based on mutual interactions for an undefined period of time (meaning FB remembers everything and we cannot tell how far back the interaction had to be to warrant being in the 9 spot).

      Delete
    2. Actually, I deavtivated my facebook a few months ago bcuz I have an Iphone and it constantly told me when he was active and it drove me crazy bcuz he is just a creeper. So after reading this I created a fake profile and looked him up. I see the same girl on there all the time. She was always there when I had a facebook too when I would look from mine.

      Delete
    3. Your "true" friend ordering is here: https://m.facebook.com/<>?v=friends

      Whenever I view my nine with "View As Another Person", they are always between 11-20 on the above list. When you're looking at your own nine while logged in, you will see a mixture of high ranking people on the above list, and recent interactions.

      I've also notice that whenever you look at another user's nine, you _never_ see yourself.

      Delete
  94. Can you view a profile of someone you are not friends with, without them knowing? Will it show up in "people you may know" if you have, for example, 1 mutual friend?

    ReplyDelete
  95. Well, I don't feel like anything's changed in months. Sometimes the top 9 appears to update more frequently, but that's about it. The Graph Search page "My Friends" still seems the most likely place to view a) who YOU "stalk" the most and vice versa. All I can be sure of, however, is that who you view will appear in that place, though not necessarily anywhere near the top of your friends page list or top 9. I know this because of test-"stalkee" who will appear very highly in my Graph Search list for a while and slowly fade. The only other person whose profile I view with any frequency sits either at the very top of the list or near it. But with them there's an actual history of interaction, and at one time, heavy interaction. They fell out of my top 9 long ago but are still in my friends page top 20. Now, other people who show up in my Graph Search list are people who have admitted to "stalking" my profile, and include good friends. I rarely interact with some of these people, though, who are barely active. So all there is to be taken from this is that viewing habits - one-sided or mutual - are highly correlated with the Graph Search "My Friends" page. If you never interact with someone and you don't have them starred or given preference in any way and they're showing up in your "My Friends" page? Probably viewing you. Then again, sometimes chat seems to heavily influence this list. So your actual "stalkers" may be somewhere in that mix, maybe just far enough down the page for you not to notice, depending on how active you are with the people above.

    A1

    ReplyDelete
  96. meant to say *showing up HIGH on your "My Friends" page.* also, tagging or someone posting to your seems to have relevance here, especially posting to page.

    A1

    ReplyDelete
  97. What is the difference between the "Graph Search My Friends" page and the "Your Friends Page List" and "Top 9"? I'm not sure that I understand what "Graph Search" is

    ReplyDelete
  98. Has anybody looked at the list of "mobileFriends" in the facebook source? This seems to be yet another list that does not seem directly related to people in the UI. It seems that when I chat, the people will bubble up to the top, but people seem to bubble up that I never interact with as well.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Well, all I can say is that I have the man I dated for six weeks at number one. I have not viewed his profile in at least six weeks, but he is ALWAYS my number 1 on the list, when I begin typing in the letter of his first name. Plus, we have not interacted on Facebook in over three months! He is not a friend of mine, either! So, I do believe it is the person who has viewed your page the most, starting with that particular letter. I also have another man on this list that is also not a friend on my page.

    I conducted an experiment by viewing the second man's page and he DID NOT move up my list. But, he may after he reads my non-friend email that I sent to him.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So, the man I contacted moved above the man who has been # 1 on my list for as long as I can remember. So, if the # 1 checks out my profile again soon, according to my logic, he should bump up to # 1. Thus proving the point that this search function does indeed indicate who views your profile on a regular basis.

      Delete
  100. This is "mobileFriends"? Interesting. I think that the search bar order can be accessed here:

    /ajax/typeahead/search/facebar/bootstrap/?no_cache=1&options[1]=lean&context=facebar&viewer=<>&token=v7&__user=<>&__a=1

    ...and seems to be another list. The thing that I find interesting about "mobileFriends" is that I see a few random people that I never interact with; it would be interesting if that was because they are just random people that combed through my profile.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Replace the <<>> with your user id.

      Delete
  101. I am interested in the top 9 friends as seen by someone who isn't a friend or a friend of friends, and I was wondering if anyone here would be interested in doing an experiment and reporting back :) Make a fake profile, preferably on computer you don't normally use for Facebook, and don't add any friends or do anything to the profile. Then go directly to your actual Facebook page, don't look at any other Facebook pages on the way, and see who is showing on the top 9 friends box on the timeline. Come back and tell me the significance of the people in the box and what interactions you have had with them, frequency you have looked at their page etc. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  102. I have been following this blog with interest as I am curious about the 9 friends, particularly my 5. He is someone I used to date but have had no contact for about 15 years until 3 months ago. He never likes or comments on my stuff, nor do we exchange emails. I comment on photos he is tagged in which show on my wall and he always replies, and has suggested we meet up when he is next in this country. He never moves from 5. Is he checking out my wall? Would like to think so. The rest of the box is as follows :-
    1. My niece who we both like,comment and talk to often.
    2. Friend,we both like,share and comment often.
    3. My son who rarely comes on Facebook but I send hime lots of stuff which he patiently trawls through and comments on when he does visits.
    4.Friend, we like occasionally comment on each others stuff.
    5.My crush.
    6.Friend from college,we like, share and occasionally comment.
    7.Best friend who has just returned to Facebook after about 11 months. We comment, like and share.
    8. Friend who likes,comments,send stuff to my wall and I do the same.
    9.Other niece we interact occasionally.

    Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mine have all remains the same. Looking at my girlfriends, here nine have all remained the same but have all switched places numerous times in the last hour or so. Could this be people she is engaged in chatting with at this moment?

      Delete
  103. I have been following these comments with interest and had two interesting experiences this week which I thought I would share.

    After stalking someone in earnest for some time, and having that stalkee pop up in my nine box, I decided to give it a rest to see if they'd fall back down. They did, after a few weeks (though still in the top 20).

    I was testing the theory that the search box tells you something, and when I typed my stalkee's initial early on Monday, they came up as expected, as well as mutual friends with the same letter. I can't remember which order.

    Later that day, I posted a bunch of photos. All of a sudden, stalkee went back into my nine box. I can only assume that stalkee clicked through without liking/commenting. I can't think what else would have caused this to happen.

    Still later, I went back to the search bar to see if this person's ranking had changed when I typed the first initial again. Instead of showing me friends related to that letter, it showed be organisations, pages that I've liked, groups, etc with those letters (I tested the rest of the alphabet, too. All pages. No friends). My hunch is that, rather than rearranging the search bar list, stalkerbook has reset it all together to make me stop drawing conclusions :)

    Two observations, I have come up with then:
    a) since I did nothing else that might have influenced it, looking at my photos seems to have bumped stalkee back into my nine;
    b) if I'm right and stalkee did look through my photographs, it has somehow altered her standing in my search rankings in a way that stalkerbook doesn't want me to know.

    I like the theory given above that if person A starts going out with person B, that Person A's mutual friends that are also relatives, colleagues, etc of person B would start coming up in the nine. I certainly use the platform to see not so much what my friends are up to, but what people who are interested in my friends are up to. Any thoughts?

    PA

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mine have all remains the same. Looking at my girlfriends, here nine have all remained the same but have all switched places numerous times in the last hour or so. Could this be people she is engaged in chatting with at this moment?

      Delete
  104. Mine have all remains the same. Looking at my girlfriends, here nine have all remained the same but have all switched places numerous times in the last hour or so. Could this be people she is engaged in chatting with at this moment?

    ReplyDelete
  105. I'm not sure that the order of the 9 matter. The only one of mine that stays the same is my sister, who is permanent on #1. This makes sense, as she's on my family list, and we interact thru likes, comments, photo tagging, etc... My daughter is also permanent in my top 9; however, she is never on the same number. The only other person who is permanent on my top 9, is an old crush, now friend, who also does not stay on the same number, but who never leaves the top 9. My daughter makes sense, as she's the same as my sister. This other guy does not make sense. We only occasionally like or comment on a photo, with lots of time in between. The rest of my nine tend to be people from my "family" list, who I do interact with, and they filter in and out. Sometimes a random friend gets put in, usually one that I've liked their stuff before. There is one other person who comes on and off my list daily, who doesn't make sense. This person is also an old crush, who I only liked his stuff occasionally, and he the same. I did used to visit his profile, but I haven't in quite awhile. He almost always shows up in my #2 or #3 spot, and then goes off completely. This has been happening every day, so he is on my top 9 every day at some point. I recently unfollowed all my friends and put them on lists, but I haven't noticed any change yet. I did not use the close friends list. I did add this guy to acquaintances, and so far he is still in my top 9. Waiting to see if he disappears. Any thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
  106. Recently, I have noticed that sometimes a person will show up two times in my list of friends - but not in the top nine. One time I decided it was because there was a glitch and I had looked at two peoples profiles a few times during the days prior. Today this has happened with two people who I have not looked at recently at all. One in my nephew, and it is possible he has looked at my page. The other is a guy that I know is interested in dating me.

    ReplyDelete
  107. I have decided that being an acquaintance has no effect on my top 9 or "my friends" list. I may have finally gotten my ex-crush off my top 9, but I have to wait and see if it sticks. I went into my activity log and deleted all posts that I liked or commented on of his. There were not many, as I said. He has been out of my top 9 since this morning. He still shows up in "my friends" list right under my family, about 4 down today. Usually he rotates from the top spot there, to somewhere right below my family, who I chat/interact with regularly.

    I have also noticed that the top 6 on mobile are in the same order as the first 6 of the top 9 on web, except that the boxes go in a different order. Instead of 1, 2, 3.... across, they go 1, 2, 3.... down. Not sure if this was said before. It is consistent on mine, though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. So, the guy who keeps showing up in my top 9, who I deleted all interaction with him in my activity log, continues to be in my top 9 every day. He has stayed at the #3 spot, then he drops off completely, then he shows up back in the #3 spot. My top 9 seems to switch between the same people, mostly my family, who are marked as family, and then these couple of random people, like this guy. I haven't been on his profile in months, we never had a chat, I deleted all searches and activity between us, and he continues to pop in and out of my top 9 every day. Not sure if Facebook just still remembers everything, or if this guy is looking at my profile or my posts through his news feed. I also do not follow him, so I see nothing he posts. This guy is also always in my "My Friends" list right below my main family members that I interact and chat with, usually about 5 down, and sometimes he moves to the #2 spot.

      Another guy in my top 9 also doesn't make a lot of sense. He never leaves the top 9 but he moves around in it. We had chats a long time ago, which are now deleted. We interact occasionally by liking pictures and an occasional comment. I used to visit his profile a lot, but that was a long time ago. I deleted all my searches. He is usually not far down on my "My Friends" list, but farther down than the previous guy I mentioned.

      I've also had a couple of people show up in my top 9 that are new friends that I commented and liked a post, and now they show up in my top 9. I interact a lot more with other people who do not show up, so not sure if they either look at my profile or if it's because of being a new friend. I had the same thing happen with an old Facebook friend who I'd never interacted with, but as soon as I made one comment and one like, she started showing up in my top 9, although only occasionally. The "new" friend shows up more regularly, although on and off.

      Delete
    2. Another thing to note, I have another new friend who likes and comments on everything I post, who we've had back and forth chats, and who has not shown up in my top 9 at all. She does show up in my "My Friends" list, sometimes near the top, and otherwise down below the guy who is always #3 on my top 9, that I mentioned.

      Delete
  108. And what about the pilliap list order now?

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  109. I've seen several friend list orders, that seem to do different things:
    * The nine (3x3) friends - seems to be a combination of "short term" and "long term" friends; the top items appear to be long lasting and the bottom seem to be based on short term interactions.
    * The friends tab - seems to be a sorted list, similar to the 3x3 above but more weighted to long term friends. Also, people marked as Family (even if you never interact with them) seem pushed to the top.
    * InitialChatFriendsList/Piliap - Highly weighted towards new friends and people recently chatted with
    * mobileFriends - Another list that nobody seems to talk about. Seems also based on recent interactions, but there are random people in here that I virtually never interact with on FB. Has anybody looked at this
    * Default favorites on the mobile app - Oddly seems unrelated to mobileFriends; seems related to recent interactions.

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  110. My top 9 changed today in a new way. It is actually true to people I interact with! It has only 3 of my family, who I interact with, and 6 other friends with mutual interaction. It is what I would expect to see. Yesterday, before this happened, my top 9 seemed "frozen" on a typical grid of my family, that old crush with no interaction that always appears on #3, and some other random friends. Then this morning it was changed, and now it seems true to my actual interactions.

    The "My Friends" list seems the same, and my old crush is still consistently showing up right below my family/chat friends. He also sometimes goes up to #1 or #2. I still think this may be because he either looks at my profile or clicks on my posts in his newsfeed.

    My top 6 mobile friends are always the same as the first 6 of my top 9 on the web. They just go in a different order, as I mentioned before. The web goes 1, 2, 3 across, and the mobile goes 1, 2, 3 down, and then over to the next column.

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  111. Also, my Chat List also seems weighted with people recently chatted with and new friends. It also will just have family.

    My "default favorites" on chat mobile have also changed recently, and they now reflect people that I've interacted with.

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  112. I had the same experience - My Friends list has changed slightly, but my top 9 list changed dramatically.

    The top 3 include long time friends that were on my old list, though I'm not sure what to make of the order. The next four include random people that I've interacted with on an off and on basis. The final two are two recent - albeit trivial - interactions.

    The My Friends list has changed; the top 4 here are the same people in my top 4 on top 9. One person (#4 on both lists) is someone that I've exchanged comments with, but nowhere near my top interaction on FB. I also see a number of people that ended up in my top 9 list "spiked" up in My Friends, but otherwise I see the same people as before.

    To me, the interesting question will be how this changes in upcoming days.

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  113. I also noticed that the mobile top 6 list is just the same as the top 6 out of 9; just going down and then right.

    I'm more intrigued by this "mobileFriends" list you only see when you view source. Some possible stalkers are in mine.

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  114. Also, is it just me, or is there a recent bias for more active users? It seems that many of the people pushed upwards are the people more active on FB in general.

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  115. Friend list became VERY active, changes all the time, think that public interactions are the most important from now on
    Nine friends on my page change as well, here it is not only about last interactions, but probably interactions at total too
    Graph Search is different, anybody here who knows how to "read it" - especially "photos of my friends" on graph search - seems that one shows who was checking my profile or link or post or whatever - your thoughts? :)

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  116. Yes, both the top 9 and "My Friends" seem to be very active; they seem to "jump" in unison. It is almost seems to be randomly showing a few people that I've had public interactions with, while keeping two people that I've had a lot of public interactions with near the top.

    In contrast, (at least my) graph search seems to be showing the same people.

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  117. Just tried myself from a fake account, it works :)
    It says that update is every 10 minutes, but it took almost half an hour to update. On my original page I can see that my fake profil checked up on me 26 minutes ago :D

    This thing works only between fb friends who have it installed on their computer as this is obviously unknown extansion (google chrome ext) maybe we should give the message further on. I do not think that any of my friends have it on, but if anybody shows up, I'll let you know

    Try with someone, it's actually funny to see that there is a way ;)

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    Replies
    1. Its easy to see how this would work, but IMHO it isn't very valuable :-(

      Delete
  118. After undulating quite a bit over the last seven days, my "My Friends" and top 9 are back to where they used to be. Graph search is slightly different, but closer to what it used to be. Will it stay that way?

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  119. The piliap list doesn't work anymore..... At least for me.

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    Replies
    1. Changes again, noticed the same tonight. Friends list and top nine seems to be 100% depending on public interactions and updated almost immediatelly

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  120. It doesn' tell you until after you installed it, that you need people who have the same extension to see if they viewed your profile or not.

    FB doesn't usually allow these kind of things on their own.

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