See Who Stalks Your Facebook
UPDATE: Well, this post has produced a fair bit of dispute! Below, five thoughtful theories trying to resolve this pressing mystery:
- The "It's Individuals YOU Browse For" Theory
A passionate reader writes: "jesus ... PLEASE proper that facebook post. it's the five individuals whom YOU BROWSE FOR usually ... not the other method around. it's owning me crazy reading through all the comments seeing people getting mad at facebook for definitely no factor."
- The "It's A Coding Mistake" Theory
From a Facebook discussion thread: "I think it's meant to be individuals whose profiles you look at the most, but that they're describing the incorrect statistics (human coding mistake) and it's really the 5 who take a look at yours a lot of.
I believe it's an error due to the fact that Facebook would not do something like that intentionally, it goes against their principles of anonymous surfing, however it absolutely describes a statistic that they're keeping, and between the [minimal] information that the coding context gives and the nature of the names (after cross-referencing with 7 of my buddies), I 'd say they're unintentionally phoning the 5 individuals who search you one of the most."
- The "Search Frequency" Theory
A reader attempts to parse the Facebook algorithm: "I have a theory. I believe it's matching the frequency of times that you search for somebody with the frequency of times that people search for you and it's an effort at analyzing who your buddies are."
- The "It's NOT The Individuals You Search For" Theory
A commenter tries the procedure of removal: "eek-- all right so i went on my secret stalking-only facebook page, where i have no good friends, and attempted it. absolutely nothing came up, which makes sense, trigger it's a whack name. however, the individuals i utilize it to stalk didn't reveal up either, which suggests it can not be tracking the individuals we stalk."
- The "Facebook Says You Like These People" Theory
A commenter declares to go directly to the source: "OK, my buddy emailed her friend that works for the Excellent Book and here was the action (focus mine): This is the canned response we've been using:
The five pals that you see below the search box are inhabited based upon individuals whom we believe you 'd be most interested in. Taking into consideration numerous elements, we try to make an educated guess regarding who it is you're searching for when you start typing a name in the search box.
Please keep in mind that this information is just visible to you and will not be shown your friends. We hope that this feature is valuable and we appreciate your feedback. Let me understand if you have further concerns."