Facebook friend suggestions

[jydk]

It seems like Facebook is taking a slightly more aggressive approach with suggesting friends by showing people you may know as the top posting on your news feed.

Why I'm posting about this is because of the people they've recently suggested that I may know and want to be friends with. All the people they've suggested in the past I have had at least one mutual friend. Today I look, and there are two people that Facebook is asking if I know, which I do, yet we have no mutual contacts.

One I know from a softball team I played for, who's actually a poster right here on CP. This person has a very short friends list, with, from what I can tell, are mostly family members, and no one that I have ever met. The only way I could see Facebook putting together the connection is if they were able to check my email contacts in my Gmail account. Which I have never authorized, at least that I am aware.

The other person is someone I briefly met on a business trip in Edmonton that was an acquaintance of an acquaintance of the colleague I was with on the trip. They are not friends on Facebook, and it appears again that we have no mutual Facebook friends. I can't come up with any other common connection that Facebook would have to suggest to me that I may know her. I don't have her as an email contact, and have never emailed her. She has too many friends for me to look through them all, but it doesn't state any of them are mutual, and just quickly sifting though, there's no one that she has that I have met.

Is there something I'm over looking, because it's quite bizarre and puzzling that Facebook is able to find these people and suggest them to me?

[Hockeyguy15]

I came in here ready to suggest a facebook friend to you, now I find myself upset that I was mislead. You should friend Option84 on facebook, he needs friends.

[malcolmk14]

I ate at Namskar one night completely randomly, had never been there before, didn't make the plans through Facebook or anything, and when I got home that night the first ad to pop up on the side of my Facebook page was Namskar. I just wrote it off as coincidence.

But this is strange.

[Phanuthier]

Did you ever write the down in any site that is in cahoots with FB? That's your link.

[Hockeyguy15]

Also if you have ever installed facebook on your all your phone numbers will be in facebook.

Click on 'account' then 'edit friends' and 'contacts'

[cmyden]

It's possible that these people are looking you up on Facebook (ie: Facebook creeping) but not adding you as a friend. I seem to remember reading something about Facebook taking that into account for their 'people you may know' algorithm.

[Nammer403]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Also if you have ever installed facebook on your all your phone numbers will be in facebook.

Click on 'account' then 'edit friends' and 'contacts'

You gotta disable the options on the facebook app so it doesnt sync the numbers onto facebook again.

[JustAnotherGuy]

Have you ever given your gmail username/password to Facebook as part of their suggest friends for an email address thing? (Sorry if I am not using the proper words)

If you used it once they will save the password so they can continue to check. There is a way to go in and delete that information. Sorry. I don't know how. lol

Otherwise I assume Facebook uses some kind of x degree of separation to find potential friends for you.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by cmyden

It's possible that these people are looking you up on Facebook (ie: Facebook creeping) but not adding you as a friend. I seem to remember reading something about Facebook taking that into account for their 'people you may know' algorithm.

I think that has to be in play because I've had suggestions similar to the OP where it suggested someone that I know but have absolutely no online connection to them whatsoever and there would be zero way for Facebook to connect us unless the other person had searched for me at some point.

[Cheese]

Facebook? Whats that... a hairstylists magazine?
Try Google+

[Kybosh]

I don't care about facebook friend suggestions. What I do care about, is that I now get Chippendale dancer ads on CP on my work computer. WTF man? I used to only get clearly contacts ads, but now every second one is a topless dude.

[Sliver]

You must have searched for topless dudes at some point. That's how the software works.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by Sliver

You must have searched for topless dudes at some point. That's how the software works.

Damn, I only did it one time for research purposes. Stupid internet.

[calumniate]

I had a guy show up on my list and we're only connected through linkedin.

[Hockeyguy15]

Originally Posted by calumniate

I had a guy show up on my list and we're only connected through linkedin.

Hmmm if we could only find out if you guys had some sort of connection?

[MelBridgeman]

i noticed this as well, especially when one time my landlord showed up under my suggested friends

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by MelBridgeman

i noticed this as well, especially when one time my landlord showed up under my suggested friends

He probably searched you to see if there were any photos of you trashing his place.

[jydk]

Originally Posted by Hockeyguy15

Also if you have ever installed facebook on your all your phone numbers will be in facebook.

Click on 'account' then 'edit friends' and 'contacts'

Originally Posted by Nammer403

You gotta disable the options on the facebook app so it doesnt sync the numbers onto facebook again.

This is what I missed!! I have both of these people in my contacts on my iPhone and I've sync'd my FB contacts with my phone contacts awhile back. Totally slipped my mind about that. It's crazy all the things Facebooks thinks of to try and connect the world together.

[jydk]

Originally Posted by cmyden

It's possible that these people are looking you up on Facebook (ie: Facebook creeping) but not adding you as a friend. I seem to remember reading something about Facebook taking that into account for their 'people you may know' algorithm.

This is what I thought might have been happening.

[Cheerio]

What's really annoying is when some random guy who went to your school but you have never talked to before keeps adding you, even though you ignore their friend requests every time. Also when you delete someone and they re-add you..