I don’t really understand Facebook. I just recently signed up for it, and literally within days of signing up, I had people who I hadn’t thought of for *years* send me a friend request. Is there a search function that lets you know if someone with a name you’ve searched in the past has signed up and alerts you, or are people from 20 years ago really searching for me every week and finally happened to get me as I signed up?
There are several ways people you know, even if you have not had contact with them in years and they have no contact info on you, might find you on facebook.
1. People You May Know
2. Suggest Friends for [you]
3. Look at mutual friends walls & see you there
4. You commented a mutual friend’s post/status/link/etc
5. Find classmates from … & Find current or past coworkers »
6. See you in a group, or application, or other thing you have done on Facebook
Then there are a couple ways more ways if someone has your email address or IM names, but this will be long enough with just the “how did you find me” methods.
All of this boils down to a couple things including the more data about you in facebook the more people can find you and the more people you are connected with, the more likely someone is to find you.
::: 1. People You May Know :::
On the first page you get to when you log into facebook, on the right hand column, most of the way down is a section titled “People You May Know“. It is based on a few things:
– your friends – thus the more friends you have the more likely someone new will get you suggested, mostly mutual friends
– your school(s) – especially school networks, lots of “both of you went to …”
– where you live(d)
With this section, they typically show 3 suggestions on the main page, yet if you click the “see all” it brings a page 18 suggestions & if you remove one (with the X) it will replace that person with another suggestion.
::: 2. Suggest Friends for [you] :::
This might be the number one way people find you, mutual friends tell them about you.
On every profile (does not show up on your own), either right under the profile picture, or farther down is a “Suggest Friends for [the profile owner]”. Clicking this allows you to send a quick message to one or more of your friends. This is the most likely reason you might “become a friend” with one old classmate & all of the sudden 500 of your old classmates send you a friend request.
If you are new to facebook, when someone becomes a friend with you, they are prompted with a “[dude] is new to facebook, you should suggest some friends”.
::: 3. Look at mutual friends walls & see you there :::
There is an announcement that is typically put on the wall of each person you become a friend with. If one of their friends looks at their wall, they might see it and jump to you. This is something you don’t control. In addition to that, they can post to your wall, or other things and have a note on their wall leading people to you.
::: 4. You commented a mutual friend’s post/status/link/etc :::
In addition to your friend doing stuff, if you do stuff … remember, the more data you put into facebook the more people might find you.
Commenting on other people’s posts/status/links/etc puts you on their wall. In addition to that, on that main page you see when you log intofacebook , it has stuff going on form your friends. If someone comments on that stuff, it shows up. Thus, you might comment on Sara’s status & Jim sees it on his News Feed orSatus Update tabs.
::: 5. Find classmates from … & Find current or past coworkers » :::
The more data you put into Facebook, the more people can find you. You add a school, you show up in that school search. You add a work, same, and so on. Some people look at the list of people who they graduated with or at their old companies.
::: 6. See you in a group, or application, or other thing you have done on Facebook :::
Simply put, again, the more you input/do on facebook the more someone might see you and request being a friend with you.
Lastly, you can give it your email account info (username & pass) and facebook will import contacts, same with IM programs. If a person has done this an “invite” will show up, but that would only apply to people who have contact info on you.
