How do the 6 friends photos at the top of Facebook Timeline get choosen?

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How do the 6 friends photos at the top of Facebook Timeline get choosen?

Why do certain friends seem to show up as one of the the six photos in the small friends list photo box at the top of Facebook Timeline? Are these the 6 friends people who have visited your profile recently or have been online recently? What is the reason for only seeing certain friends pictures in this friends box?

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Answers · Answer 1 · 12/10/2011 8:34:02 AM

At the top of the new Facebook Timeline profile, the 6 friends photos that facebook chooses for the smaller friends list box across the top banner is much more likely to show friends that are more likely to be your closer friends (and/or facebook stalkers, crushes, or recently interacted with friends). It's also clear that the friends shown are much less random "friends" and very much tied to interactions on facebook (recent interactions seemingly playing a large role).

So here are some factors contributing to why you might be seeing certain friends in the small Friends list box on your own profile:

- Interactions (recently and over time)
- Profile views (they've viewed your profile and/ or you've viewed their profile - Total amount of views when compared to other friends profiles viewed)
- Photos that you've been tagged in (or have tagged your friends).
- Wall posts
- Likes
- Comments
- Photos viewed (they've viewed your pictures, and/or you've viewed theirs)
- Online Friends who are currently Online (or recently been online for Random people that might show up)
- Chat - Facebook IM chat messages between each other
- Private messages sent between friends

Any "mutual interactions" between yourself and your friends will play a huge role, so if you and your friend both viewed each others profile recently (or liked each others photos, commented on each other profiles, were tagged in photos, etc), then these friends are more likely to appear.

Recent Interactions also seem to play a large role in which friends show up. As well as, interactions that have been on going for a longer period of time.

It definitely appears that Facebook has fine tuned their algorithm more precisely for the new Timeline profile friends "box" list, when compared to the older profile friends list sidebar.

The small six photo friends picture box seems to show friends facebook has deemed to be some of your closest friends and/or those friends most interested in you, based on their "facebook" interaction with you (and/or your interactions with them or each other).

Unlike the older friends list sidebar which seemed to have had more random friends show up more often, whom may not have been very close to you or well connected to you on Facebook, the newer Timeline profiles small 6 friends list photo box appears to show a lot less random "friends". While the friends pics will change more often if you refresh the page, these friends are much more likely to be "connected" to you on a more personal and/or facebook level.

So if you're seeing certain friends show up in the friends box, there's most likely a good reason for it... and there's a good chance that they are one of the following: good friends, family, facebook stalkers, your crushes and/or your recently interacted with friends.

A Fly Went By · Answer 2 · 12/21/2011 11:33:55 AM

A Fly Went By

0

Hmmmm.... hopefully this works the same way as the old left 10 friends sidebar because I "figured out a few things" about how it works! At first I was unsure of why certain people were featured there until a few days ago SOMETHING happened, and BAM! Now I know exactly what's going on for the most part! I also did some experimental tests with it and discovered that there are specific reasons why certain people show up there. As long as THAT feature doesn't change, I'm all for the new facebook changes. I like it because it "tells me certain things I want to know."

Source(s):

Months of Experimentation and an Accidental Recent Incident That Proved What I Suspected!

Dec 21st, 2011 at 11:33 AM

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what did it tell you? – jon Apr 19th, 2012 at 4:14 AM

No way... · Answer 3 · 12/21/2011 4:00:18 PM

No way...

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I think this is completely made up... I see no evidence of it whatsoever. Please explain what you figured out because as far as I can tell, these are very RANDOM friends.

Dec 21st, 2011 at 4:00 PM

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It's definitely not random... especially the smaller 6 photo box. The large 6 Friends box that's embedded within your Timeline, will have more random friends show up at times (around 2-4), but certain friends who are definitely not random will sometimes stay for longer periods of time without changing (even while other friends pictures will change). Often these are your friends whom you know would be checking out your profile. – Answers Dec 22nd, 2011 at 6:19 AM

JBK · Answer 4 · 12/22/2011 5:11:16 AM

JBK

+1

To a fly went by - what did you figure out?

Dec 22nd, 2011 at 5:11 AM

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anon · Answer 5 · 12/30/2011 7:55:09 PM

anon

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They're actually the people on their friends list that you have the most mutual friends in common with - it looks different to different people

Dec 30th, 2011 at 7:55 PM

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TB · Answer 6 · 1/2/2012 3:18:07 AM

The real problem is how do you control your DEFAULT top 6 friends. That is, the ones that everyone other than your FB friends sees. Although it seems to be drawn in random initially, it eventually becomes permanent, and almost always not representative of your actual friend circle.

I also did a little experiment and it seems your current FB friends will see different sets of top 6 friends depending on who your mutual friends are, who interacted with you, etc.

However, I searched for my name using a bogus FB account and FB ALWAYS pulls the same set of top 6 friends, most of whom I barely communicate with or merely friends' acquaintances. What gives? And there doesn't seem to be a way to edit/control this list short of blocking your entire friends list (with the exception of yours/viewer's mutual friends) from everyone.

FB used to give you the ability to set your default top 12 but no longer. This could cause some issues for some people. Imagine if you're a twenty something person who just happens to know a few older folks and FB represents you as being friends with mostly senior folks or you're a senior folk & FB represents you're mostly friends with your mohawked nephews/nieces that you actually dont really care for? This sounds extreme but it's quite possible.

Anyway, just trying to find an explanation as with the rest of you.

gypsy · Answer 7 · 1/3/2012 3:13:45 AM

gypsy

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I have my friend list viewable only by me so I'm not concerned about what others see...but there are a few friends I have only because I have to (stupid family stuff) and would rather not look at their mugs all the time. Is there a way to choose not to allow certain friends to appear there?

Jan 3rd, 2012 at 3:13 AM

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Chrissy · Answer 8 · 1/4/2012 2:00:23 AM

I have had the timeline since mid September and have 377 friends. I noticed that when I view my own timeline the 6 pics are from a random group of 25. Of those 25 friends I have renently had contact with, ie...attented same events, tagged in pics with, or publically communicated with via multiple comments and likes and also have tons of mutal friends with all of them except one. Of those 24 ALL of them are on daily making comments, liking statuses and posting. and since September that group of 24 has not changed. That 1 friend whom I have not had any contact with since the begining of August, which was me commenting on a check in that he was tagged in by another mutal friend. Prior to that no there has been only a few comments in the past year. No events attentded together, no pictures we were both tagged in and very few mutal friends. And has particiapated publically on facebook at all since July and in the past year has only publically interacted with anyone a few times.
This one shows up numberous times more than anyone else. I have not viewed his profile a few times in the past year and have viewed other profiles more. However prior to this year we did communicate a great deal but only for a few months. But did view his profile daily, but like I said that was over a year ago.

Could he be viewing my profile???

mm · Answer 9 · 1/16/2012 4:54:46 AM

one thing i'm 100% sure sure is 6 out of 25 list is that the people you see are different from what others see on your profile. but others will get to see your publicly interacted friends plus some random people.

However what's more interesting is it never shows to others the people you are stalking, nor does it show your stalkers. I know because I have some good suspects who I never had any interaction with.What I am not sure is if s/he has been viewing my profile recently too. but if my logic holds any water here, that others will only see public interactions+random friends, so if you don't see your crush appear in public, a good chance is that it's only a single-sided action, meaning you are just as a big wishful-thinking stalker just like those stalking you but you never go to their profile for even once=)

Indeed very bitter sweet huh..

Rogger · Answer 10 · 1/21/2012 9:18:03 PM

Rogger

+1

A Fly Went By ... Share your research results please...

Jan 21st, 2012 at 9:18 PM

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Brendan · Answer 11 · 1/31/2012 9:30:17 PM

Chrissy is more or less correct. It is indeed six out of a set of 25 friends. I also found out that Close Friends get preferentially put in the box, and Acquaintances NOT put in the box. By putting people in Close Friends or Acquaintances one at a time, I was able to get a ranking, as Facebook sees it, for my friends up to a point (after which it doesn't work; instead of Friend #1xx, you'll see the first 24 friends repeated instead of 25).

Here's what I did:

1. Put one of the 25 friends that show up in the box on your Acquaintances list. They will no longer show up on in the six friends box, but a new friend will pop up. The new friend is #26 in Facebook's ranking. Repeat to find friend #27, #28, and so on.

2. Once you get up to Friend 50, you can find the rankings of your first 25 friends by putting Friends #26-#49 (24 friends) in Close Friends. They'll show up in the six-box with Friend #1. Then put Friend #1 in Acquaintances and repeat, you'll get Friend #2 showing up.

I also found out:

1. In the "find friends" page that shows up when you see "People You May Know" and click "see all", the three friends that appear under "Mutual Friend" with checkboxes are picked from the top 10 of the same list that the top 25 friends on the Timeline bar are.

2. Facebook recalculates your friends every couple of weeks or so, although it's uneven and can't be predicted exactly when the next "reboot" happens.

I have no idea what the algorithm they use to determine the ranking for your friends, so I'd go with Answers' answer. People you interact with more in FB than in meatspace will be artificially higher in the rankings. Profile views may be a factor, but it doesn't seem to be a terribly large one.

Brendan · Answer 12 · 2/1/2012 1:38:22 AM

"I also did a little experiment and it seems your current FB friends will see different sets of top 6 friends depending on who your mutual friends are, who interacted with you, etc."

"One thing i'm 100% sure sure is 6 out of 25 list is that the people you see are different from what others see on your profile. but others will get to see your publicly interacted friends plus some random people."

This is actually very simple. If you look at your own profile with one of your friend's view (the "see as" option), it will show six of THEIR top 25 friends who are ALSO mutual friends with YOU. Say, for example, you look at your own profile with your friend Mike's view, but you don't know his brother or high school friends. It will skip those and go down Mike's list, only picking those on the list who are friends with you. If the person has fewer than 6 mutual friends with you, FB will fill out the six-box with totally random people from your list, unless you have your friends list hidden from whomever is viewing your profile, in which case it just shows gray blank space.

Kurubokis · Answer 13 · 2/1/2012 11:48:41 AM

I changed over to the the new Timeline shortly after it's inception back in September, and throughout October saw a general pattern in the 6 friends that were appearing in the top friends box. This was when I decided to conduct my own fun little experiment that began on the 1st of November and ended today (31st January).

Hypothesis:
I wanted to see if there was a correlation between appearances in the box and interaction on facebook, or was it all random.

Method:
What I did was simple. Over that 3 month period, everytime I logged onto Facebook I noted the 6 friends that appeared in that box, and at the end of each week tallied them up - a kind of keep-score. In essence this was a frequency count based on appearances.

I also introduced two rules:

1. Limit MY page viewing of those people that appeared; and

2. Increase MY Facebook interactions with real life close friends.

Results:
My most consistent finding throughout that whole period was that appearances were NOT random. Of the 650 or so of my friends, I counted a total of 39 that appeared in the box (25 in the first week, which jumped to 31 in the first month, 35 in the month of December and 39 by the end of January). Some friends dropped out and were replaced by others but in the main these were people I have/had interacted with recently and over the course of my time on Facebook.

Some interesting findings:

* My list based on appearance counts read like this; friends of friends, recent exes, random friends, siblings, close friends (in real life and on Facebook), and other family relations - IN THAT ORDER;

*Of the 2 people whom I can honestly say I have interacted with the MOST since joining Facebook, only 1 of them appears in that list of 39, and that person doesn't even make the top 10 appearance counts;

* My exes have pretty high counts;

* The #1 and # 2 spots in terms of appearances aren't even close friends and our interactions on Facebook can best be termed as sporadic.

Explanation:
My most vain attempt at an explanation would be that they were my or I am their stalker, but that's too simplistic. A more plausible (and sensible) explanation is in line with the original answer at the top of this page. The people who appear in the top friends box are a combination of :

* Interactions - such as page views, wall posts, status likes, comments and viewed pictures etc on Facebook (recent and overtime);
* Mutual associations (friends, relationships, groups, Fan pages, photos and attended events ; and
* Online status.

Conclusion:
It must be said though that this was a subjective test based on simple data (frequent appearance counts) that was, let's be honest here, anecdotal. Short of soliciting an answer from someone at Facebook who worked on the 'algorithm' (if there is in fact one), we will never truly know but to say it's totally random is a fallacy. What is true however is that this has been a fun little time-killer and at the end of the day, Facebook is what it is, a social network that's meant to keep 'friends' in contact.

Wonder Woman · Answer 14 · 2/3/2012 4:18:20 PM

It's definitely not random, i did a little test by refreshing my timeline for 15min, and writing down every name that appeared on the six friends picture box. The number of friends appearing was 26, each of them showing again and again.
Then i took the ones that were showing the most(5people) and put them in acquaintances. refreshed again for some time - none of these people showed up again in the six friends picture box. Instead, there were new people showing up.
The thing is, i don't really interact much with some of this people that show up, the ones i interact with don't have that high number of appearance. so is it possible that these people are actually the ones that view my profile the most?? for example, there's this guy that appears a lot, but that's probably because i view his wall quite frequently, but some of the others-i never view their profile.
I'm also very interested in the pattern that shows up on my chat list. Almost always the same people(70% of them appear in the six friends picture box) With some of the people there i chat or message, but with some i haven't wrote anything in months, they are not in my close friends list, and i don't view their profile often. and is there a connection between who i see on the top of the chat list, and who sees me on the top of their chat list??

mm · Answer 15 · 2/5/2012 6:49:00 AM

"This is actually very simple. If you look at your own profile with one of your friend's view (the "see as" option), it will show six of THEIR top 25 friends who are ALSO mutual friends with YOU. Say, for example, you look at your own profile with your friend Mike's view, but you don't know his brother or high school friends. It will skip those and go down Mike's list, only picking those on the list who are friends with you. If the person has fewer than 6 mutual friends with you, FB will fill out the six-box with totally random people from your list, unless you have your friends list hidden from whomever is viewing your profile, in which case it just shows gray blank space."

no, i viewed from a bogus account, then i friended myself (i know exactly what the “view as” looks like:). so i have every reason to say fb does respect your "privacy" in a way by not disclosing those you view the most or they view you the most or recently.

mememem · Answer 16 · 2/17/2012 3:58:02 AM

mememem

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It;s your close friends that they put on that box

Feb 17th, 2012 at 3:58 AM

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kuchbla · Answer 17 · 2/17/2012 6:19:38 PM

kuchbla

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not really close friends cause I have there at least one person who I never speak to and he is always seem to appear in that box. alongside my sister and a few good friends/

Feb 17th, 2012 at 6:19 PM

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Fly2 · Answer 18 · 2/21/2012 1:54:33 PM

Fly2

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I don't know, but it pisses me off to see certain people on my bf's fb page that stay constant in that damn box on the right side!

Feb 21st, 2012 at 1:54 PM

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senorita22 · Answer 19 · 2/24/2012 12:55:43 AM

senorita22

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Okay. So are the top 6 friends the people whose profile YOU view or the ones that view YOUR profile? I'm just soo confused. Like, I most of my friends are the one that I've listed as my family members, some are the ones that I often talk to on Facebook, but then there's this guy I NEVER talk to on Facebook but he shows up most of the time. I mean, I do view his profile like once or twice in a day but that's about it. Is there a possibility that he's viewing my profile?

Feb 24th, 2012 at 12:55 AM

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Yes, there's a possibility he's viewing your profile, but it's also possible that he's showing up more because your viewing his profile once or twice a day. If you view someone's profile that often, then most likely facebook is going to show you their picture to you more often as well. – Answers Feb 27th, 2012 at 6:55 PM

Missy Moo · Answer 20 · 3/6/2012 7:09:04 PM

Here is my experience.

I got the timeline pretty much right away. About the time I started crushing hard core on my boss. I built up the nerve to send him a friend request and as soon as he accepted it, I was all over his page every day for weeks on end. This is when I started to hear about these stalker apps. So I got really nervous and started to research them. Fortunately I was relieved to find out that there isn't really an application that could tell my boss I was visiting his page a 100 times a day. However, when I was doing my research I found an article that said how your top friends are actually the people who view YOUR page. Hmmmm.....

Then I started to refrain from visiting the boss's page at all. But now I was well aware of this top friends theory and started to pay close attention to who was there.

Every single person on this list I suspect has good reason to be stalking out my page. The most frequent I see is my mother. She was always snooping through my stuff when I was teenager, so I am certain she creeps around my Facebook page. Three others are Nosey Family Members. The kind who has to know EVERYTHING about EVERYONE. And the best way to know EVERYTHING is to periodically check peoples pages for something they may have missed in the Newsfeed. Can't miss out on a potential piece of juicy gossip. There are two guys who show up all the time, and I know for fact they check my page out on a regular basis. One is an old friend from high school whom I have 40 some mutual friends with and the other is a chat friend whom I have 4 mutual friends with. There is also a handful of old friends who show up. These were people I was very very close to a long time ago but not so much anymore. I suspect they check up on me periodically as well. The other people I notice are "new" friends. Friends I have made in the past 6 to 9 months. I suspect they are snooping through my archives to try and get to know me and who I am and what I do. (Because this is the same thing I do to my "new" friends)

Based on who I have seen over and over again, I was starting to believe this theory was partially true. Then one day I noticed a new face on my list. One that had never ever been there before. So I thought to myself, "does this mean this individual recently viewed my page?" The next day I get a private message from him asking me how I have been doing and what I have been up to. Coincidence? Maybe. But then it happened AGAIN.

So now I feel fairly certain this theory is true.

Yes, I do interact with most of these people on a daily basis BUT what about the other ones I interact with daily? I have other friends who I interact with a lot more and they NEVER show up. Why? Maybe because they don't creep around my page when they don't have anything better to do.

Eventually I finally broke down and went to the boss's page after resisting the urge for months. Why did I do this? Because I think he's starting to catch on to the fact that I have a HUGE crush on him and now there's a little bit of sexual tension going on. So the urge to drool over his pictures came back ten fold.

But he still has never shown up in my list. And the first time around I had to visit his page at least 10,000 times a week. So I feel fairly certain this list cannot be who YOU are looking at.

One week we were talking a lot more than usual and I was starting to feel my suspicions of a mutual attraction were correct, AND THEN HE SHOWS UP IN MY LIST.

Why???? Because I recently started to visit his page again? Or because he finally couldn't resist checking out my page? This is the very first time he has ever shown up on my list and we have had absolutely NO interaction on FB besides my initial friend request. I have never liked anything, commented on anything, or left my presence in any way and he has never liked or commented on anything of mine. (He's MARRIED and his wife is his friend of course.) We only have 4 mutual friends. We have no other connections. No groups. Likes. Nothing. (Thanks to FB's Friendship thingy I know this is a fact.)

SO if we have had NO interaction why don't I ever see other people I have NO interaction with? I have 400 + friends and only interact with maybe 100 of them. The rest are people I don't really know. Most them aren't even on my Newsfeed. I NEVER see anyone that don't have ANY interaction with.... until now.

The only explanation is its because I've looked at his page or he's looked at mine. Because there is no other way to connect us besides that and our four measly mutual friends. (Which I think we can rule out Mutual Friends as a factor.) To further rule out these two final possibilities I picked a random friend that I have had little to no interaction with (but some mutual friends) and decided to stalk their profile to see if this causes them to appear in the list.

I went to this friend's page and browsed their pictures and wall. Refreshed hundreds of times for a few days. Left no trace. No likes, posts or anything, They have yet to appear in the list. I don't think they will (but my boss is still there!!!). Because I truly believe this is the secret stalker list. How can you explain an old friend appearing, then you get a message from them asking what you've been up to? You can't.

I just wanna know, do they get on this for one view or because they are viewing it more often than others?

And how long do they remain your list? Until someone else views your page?

N. Zetterstrom · Answer 21 · 3/12/2012 7:26:26 PM

N. Zetterstrom

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I've noticed it's not the six friends on your Timeline profile, but the nine friends in the "Friends"-Timeline-site-thingy, if that makes ANY sense. Like, you click "Friends" and then you see people you have in common with this person, but when you scroll down to the actual "Friends" the same nine people reappears time and time again. They keep changing position, though. I tried it out with this guy I am very much interested in, (don't judge me!) and his ex-girlfriend, closest girl friend, three closest buddies, closest friend from school, sister, mom (again, don't judge me!) and I appear, every single time. You can try it out by noticing who someone interacts with the most, or who YOU interact with the most, and then look at the nine friends on top of the actual friends list, which includes ALL of your friends, not only the six people shown on the profile.

Mar 12th, 2012 at 7:26 PM

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That is exactly the same thing I've noticed and continue to notice. There are eight friends in that box and every time I refresh the page, they change position, but for the most part they are they same people and also the same people that I most interact with and I believe are checking out my timeline very regularly. – tommylane Mar 29th, 2012 at 11:38 PM

Thrlskr858 · Answer 22 · 3/23/2012 8:37:53 AM

Timeline has a feature where you type in one of your friends name to see how your profile appears to them when the visit your page. When doing this, I noticed that different friends appeared my top 6 friends window for different people:

When viewing my profile through different co-workers I have as friends, half of my friends were other co-workers while others were people we had in common.

When viewing through profiles of people I stalk (who doesn't check out girlfriends you think are hot?), half the people are people we both communicate (mutual friends) and the others are people who have recently posted on my page.

When viewing through family members eyes, other family member profiles appeared along with mutual friends that one or more family members were associated with.

And lastly, when viewing through random friend profile eyes, half that appeared were mutual friends in their cities and the other half mutual friends from my home city.

After playing around with this, I'm pretty sure the people that appear in your top 6 friends in timeline are all people who have recently stalked or have visited your page. They can't see themselves in your list when they visit your page. But you can! And they can see to! So don't think your stalking attempts are going unnoticed. They know you visit their profile just as much as you know who visits yours.

Joe · Answer 23 · 3/24/2012 2:38:52 AM

I have timeline as well, and the question at first was, which of the two sets of friends are the "top friends"? Based upon checking my profile just now, my friendslist to the right is showing eight friends now. So the top friends turn out to be the smaller box of six friends.

What if certain friends show up in both boxes? What does anyone notice about this? I do notice from multiple times per day, friends show in variations. So in the morning time, on the list to the right, I can see certain friends, but then in the evening, some of those friends are off the list of friends shown to the right. For me, I log on and notice how some certain friend show up repeatedly in the list to the right, versus someone just showing up, and never showing up again.

I have reference stories as far as someone showing up in both lists. My sister has this so-called friend, who sent out friend requests to everyone in my family, and of her friends. I don't talk to her, nor have a I any need to look at her. I just friended her for the hell of it. the funniest thing about her is how she is constantly changing her profile pic, all the time.

Another story is, someone I like is showing up in both lists as well. I can point out, I did recently contact him recently. The contact seems to be one sided with me talking first, but when I put the initial of the person's name in the search bar, this person is first with a certain letter, that shows his username, and the last name.I make note that, the many searchbar results have change around drastically, but this person remains in the same spots with the initials. Since someone has the same initial as the first name, that person I like is second. The oddness is, I make sure not to publicly interact with this person on facebook. The contact has only been private messaging. One pointer is, when I first got timeline, this person was already in the smaller box of friends as some other obvious friends. In relation to the poster before me and above, this fits what you pointed out.

wall · Answer 24 · 3/24/2012 1:09:26 PM

wall

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i believe that when someone shows up in both boxes on timeline..the small box on the top and the one on the right means that they have just visited your page. The crazy thing is that sometimes I notice certain person's photo is shown both the first on the small box and the big box. Don't know what does it mean.

Go to "Find Friend" and then you see 3 names under Mutual Friend on the left. Refresh the page and you see some names show up again and again. I get a feeling that those are your biggest stalkers. :)

Mar 24th, 2012 at 1:09 PM

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CC · Answer 25 · 4/6/2012 3:48:39 AM

CC

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Okay, so I used to view my boyfriend's ex-girlfriend's profile a lot, and she is ALWAYS in that little box. I've NEVER had any interaction with her on facebook. I've completely stopped looking at her profile and have been interacting with people trying to get them to show up instead of her, but nothing works. The other 5 friends constantly switch around and change, but she always stays there in the sixth spot no matter what. Anyone know how to fix this?

Apr 6th, 2012 at 3:48 AM

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amandeep · Answer 26 · 4/6/2012 11:12:41 AM

I suspect has good reason to be stalking out my page. The most frequent I see is my mother. She was always snooping through my stuff when I was teenager, so I am certain she creeps around my Facebook page. Three others are Nosey Family Members. The kind who has to know EVERYTHING about EVERYONE. And the best way to know EVERYTHING is to periodically check peoples pages for something they may have missed in the Newsfeed. Can't miss out on a potential piece of juicy gossip. There are two guys who show up all the time, and I know for fact they check my page out on a regular basis. One is an old friend from high school whom I have 40 some mutual friends with and the other is a chat friend whom I have 4 mutual friends with. There is also a handful of old friends who show up. These were people I was very very close to a long time ago but not so much anymore. I suspect they check up on me periodically as well. The other people I notice are "new" friends. Friends I have made in the past 6 to 9 months. I suspect they are snooping through my archives to try and get to know me and who I am and what I do. (Because this is the same thing I do to my "new" friends)
i believe that when someone shows up in both boxes on timeline..the small box on the top and the one on the right means that they have just visited your page. The crazy thing is that sometimes I notice certain person's photo is shown both the first on the small box and the big box. Don't know what does it mean.

User · Answer 27 · 4/7/2012 7:26:43 AM

User

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I was reading through, im more curious about the 8 friends on my actualy timeline, not the small 6 friends. 7 of them a re pretty close, but there is one who i barely talk to and barely know. Does she check up on me? and there is another friend who is also my crush :P Does my crush check up on me? and she also barely goes on fb :P

Apr 7th, 2012 at 7:26 AM

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Yes, it's the 8 friends that I would like to rotate, because some of them have profile pictures that I HATE. – Fred Aug 25th, 2012 at 3:12 AM

elessur c · Answer 28 · 4/8/2012 8:10:42 AM

elessur c

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^^How often do you check your crush's fb profile?

Apr 8th, 2012 at 8:10 AM

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Anonymous, clearly · Answer 29 · 4/12/2012 1:41:58 AM

Anonymous, clearly

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I'm about to go live on timeline, and for the past two weeks the 8 person box has had the same two people in the bottom two spots, coincidentally the people that I've viewed the most (though no actual interactions) for a while. Has anyone else had this happen? It's a little unnerving that they don't change at all, even in placement, while the other 6 seem to shift around and vary amongst a small group (maybe 20 or so). It's at least scared me out of stalking for a few weeks, and I know now that they won't see my profile like that (thanks to one of the above answers mentioning the 'view as' feature), but did I somehow manage to break the algorithm through excessive stalking?

Apr 12th, 2012 at 1:41 AM

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Your bottom left is either the person you've been lookin at the most or theyve been lookin at your profile. Iv been looking into this as well. The other 6 rotate around, they are people that youve had interaction with before with at least 1 or 2 could be randoms thrown in there. When a new face appears I believe they have recently looked at your profile and then they'll disappear. facebook reboots every so often so your bottom two will eventually change. – KayR Apr 12th, 2012 at 4:38 AM

justme · Answer 30 · 4/12/2012 6:16:11 AM

justme

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It creeps me out. The same people keep showing up even with 1200+ friends. I hate it. I feel like I'm being stalked.

Apr 12th, 2012 at 6:16 AM

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sharmin · Answer 31 · 4/12/2012 5:51:52 PM

i have been reading the comments here and what i found and believe is-
* The peson always shows in right or left top of the small box is just viewed you
* in Find friends there is always 3 friends always appears and a total of 10 friends appears by refreshing. This 10 people is either your highly interacted or most photo tagged or family or your top most stalkers. For me 4 of them is family, 3 of them is just photo tag, 1 of them is good interaction and 2 of them is my top stalkers i believe.
*In the 8 box friend sometimes 2 of my top stalkers appears in the bottom left or right position and they dont change their position while refreshing
* Also when you visit your whole profile by year, you can see the friends that you added in the recent year and the friend that appears big is also your stalker or most interacted one.
* In the search button if you see them in the top by putting just letters, i believe they have searched on you last time if you didnt search on them with that letter last time.
......................please inform if you find these things similar to you
.

Anonymous guy · Answer 32 · 4/14/2012 7:30:32 AM

For the 8 friend box, I can confirm myself that the bottom left and right, do have something to do with profile views.

I was forced into timeline last month, and for me, the bottom left and right are people who's page views I've looked at very often (bottom left being my crush, bottom right being someone I used to like--but just check out of boredom. In the recent past, I have maybe liked a status update or something.. But hardly any interaction previous to that.

However, I've not looked at their profile nearly as much, maybe 1-3 times a day or none at all. The bottom right one though, actually changes every day with another girl (internet friend of mine.. i don't view her profile often, but may like a status update or exchange comments ). And its always between the two and no one else!!
Bottom left hasn't changed since i noticed it 3 weeks ago.

I actually took a survey recently on a game message board site, and it looks like a bunch of people with their friends on their bottom left and right varied from people they knew to people they barely talked to. So I'm guessing their fb friends talking their profile might come to play after all!

Anon · Answer 33 · 4/14/2012 12:38:00 PM

Anon

+1

There is a longer discussion about this on this exact site somewhere, and the conclusion that they seem to have come to on that discussion is that:
The people who come up in the box are the people who view your profile most regularly. Facebook throws in up to 5 randoms (it seems) so that you don't get suspicious.
If you ask Facebook personally they claim it is the people you have contacted publicly the most in the past 6 weeks. I know for a fact this cannot be true, as most the people who turn up in my friends box are people I have never spoken to on Facebook, let alone in the past 6 weeks.

Apr 14th, 2012 at 12:38 PM

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Unreal · Answer 34 · 4/17/2012 2:27:17 AM

Before yesterday night, I didn't though my crush could actualy being looking at my profile she has like more than 1000 friends and we don't know much IRL.But then since last thursday, when you look to your owns profiles, you see it as facetime even if you haven't changed yet. And from that thurday to sunday night (yesterday) my crush was the right bottom one. (and believe me I cheked really often my own profiles, don't know why I do it without noticing, it's kind of an habit) At first, I though, well, no suprise, I chek her profile very often..! But then I wen at my friend's house and tell him about the 2 bottom one than never change, And at first he though I was ''finally'' with facetime so he goes on my page with is cell phone to notice I still wasn't. Then, when I go home that that, he replaced her in the bottom left square after many days of being my crush ! And I haven't chek his profile that day... So I though he went there because he did check on mine.

Second story ! Today, of course it was still my friend who remplaced her who was still there, Then I talk a bit to my crush over textos today and saw her online a bit afterward.. I don't speak with her on facebook and don't check at her profile either (at least this time) and guess what, after her two short logg in logg out, She pop back as the bottom left !

If others notices stuff or have experiances to share, I'd be happy to read those !

Shortcake · Answer 35 · 4/17/2012 2:10:27 PM

Shortcake

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This is really interesting stuff. I've tried a lot of the suggestions above and am interested in one person that keeps popping up on my new timeline. He's always in the bottom left box of the 8 person list and never moves, frequently in the six friends box, and under 'mutual friends' under the 'find friends' section, he's there many times after refreshing the page too. We haven't spoken on FB for a few months, but I do look at his page every few days. Can anyone tell me whether he's appearing because I'm looking at him, or is it because he's also looking at me?

Apr 17th, 2012 at 2:10 PM

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Gina · Answer 36 · 4/18/2012 2:15:48 AM

Well I'm not sure how exactly my people are determined on my 6 friend box... It may have something to do with my views of their pages but I don't visit all those people's pages every day. Some of them are everyday, some of them once in awhile, but some I haven't looked at in over a month. More recently, my crush and some professional race car driver have been showing up quite often in that 6 person box... and I'm not gonna lie, one of them I look at their page all the time, and the other I look at their page maybe every other week. So, obviously the thing is not very consistent with my profile views or interactions of other people (I'm sure some whose profiles I look at more are never a part of that box), and it could very well mean that those who do get in that box are the ones that are looking at my page the most. Which I honestly hope to be true, especially for the 2 guys I talked about that have never showed up on that box until recently. :)

Facebook2.rt · Answer 37 · 4/18/2012 5:36:30 AM

Facebook2.rt

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this is all very interesting... I Can know who your friends look at most, but only out of mutual friends (But you can't see where you lie) pretty cool though :)

Apr 18th, 2012 at 5:36 AM

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nameless · Answer 38 · 4/18/2012 6:47:50 AM

nameless

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I wonder if facebook tracks who looks at your profile (or vice versa) when displaying "recommended pages" tab of friend's likes... Or if its random.

Apr 18th, 2012 at 6:47 AM

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not tellin · Answer 39 · 4/18/2012 10:29:07 PM

amazing!!
1.) i tried the find friends and refreshed a 1000 times and only nine name came up. of the nine i think 3 were family, 3 i interacted with recently , 2 were people i had little or no interaction whatsoever in the past few months. 1 think is my **stalker**. he's the guy i like. we have had no interaction whotsoever except messaging eachother 2 months ago (january). none of the other people i message show up on my top 8 or friends finder tho....

2.) i noticed my stalker pops up in my top 8 on the lower right spot and it never changes. matter of fact none of my top 8 ever change position. (which i find awkward)

3.) i would like to think hes my stalker but i frequent his fb page at least once a day, so maybe that's why!
but there are other people i stalk on fb and they never appeared under my top 8 or friend finders.

----
i wonder if i should ask him if i show up under his top 8.... if i do, then that'll confirm that yes! the bottom left or right of the top 8 are people who frequent your page!!

who is viewing your profile · Answer 40 · 4/18/2012 10:46:28 PM

well.. this has been confusing me for a long time.. I used to have communication on FB with a person whose significant other got.. ?jealous? over, sending me emails, etc. So, I pretty much blocked her and anyone else who I thought might be party to it.. the stitch 'n b****, highschool scenario. when the new timeline came in, clearly he'd put me on his Public only - so.. that was that and that was fine.. a relief in a way. Too many games. I recently also just added him (under the Privacy options), excluding him from being able to see anything - because it's just all to juvenile. However, even after that, and I don't visit his profile page at all, haven't for months - he still shows up in those 6 pictures on the timeline, a couple of times a day.. which I don't understand. but I did, the reason for this post, do the View As so I could see what my profile looked like to him (as far as I know, this.. girlfriend - is reading over his shoulder..) - and I'm wondering in terms of the post made above if even when you do a View As someone else, that is perceived as interaction so these individuals you View As will show up in that 6 friends list. I doubt very much that he is viewing my Profile often at all - except out of the occasional idle curiosity.. I know I can unfriend/block him, but I choose not to as I told him I would always be his "friend" and I meant that. He still has the option to message me if he.. needs a friend. I don't break my word. I just think that View As might make FB think someone is a top friend?

Hugo · Answer 41 · 4/19/2012 2:10:00 AM

This is something that seems to have gone unnoticed by most people but in doing a little "research" of my own, I've noticed something that NO one else has mentioned on any forum I've seen regarding this.

These theories all seem to be mostly right but I see people going off track because of a couple of oversights. Whoever appears in your friends list isn't ONLY dependent on YOUR page but theirs as well. When you look at someone's friends list, it is a snapshot of the last time that THEY were logged on as well as who they interacted with in one form or another when THEY were on. Refresh as many times as you like and it will stay pretty much the same until they log in again. Now here is the unnoticed trick to that...the people on their list will be determined by when the people on their list log on and refresh also. It's also dependent on how often they get on. The more active a group is on FB...the more accurate it's likely to be.

If there's someone on your list that you never interact with...take a look to see how active they are on FB. Odds are it's not very much. They haven't been on enough or interacted enough with other people to change their own order up so if YOU were their big interaction at one time...they may stay on the list for a while. Something that's TELLING is seeing people come and go from a friends list. This insinuates regular interaction because one person may be too busy to get on FB for a few days...drop off and then interact AGAIN..and boom! Right back on top.

If you pay attention...you can actually tell what time people actually log on because their friends list will be WILDLY random for a minute...and then update. Take note of the population of the list at different times during the day and you will be able to tell their regular log on times. You can also tell how recently by refreshing YOUR homepage (basically clearing the online cache) then going to their page and whoever comes out on top...is usually the most recent interaction.. Also...And YES...the people on a friends list are the people who have interacted with that person, not the other way around. So if you want to see if your BF, GF, WIFE, HUSBAND whatever is interacting with someone, check out the people on their list and see if they are consistently in each others top 6(ish). If they are...then they ARE regularly communicating. You can also make note of the times that each other post as well. Gives an indication of times of interaction as well. You may find it disturbing how often they are on at the same time.

People give up so much information on FB and have no idea that it's right there in front of them for everyone to see.

metalChocobo · Answer 42 · 4/22/2012 11:29:13 AM

You know, this is very interesting.

I read most comments here and did some experiments.

I was more interested in finding out why did the same person always showed up in the bottom left of the 8 friend box, because everytime I log in I check his profile a lot. I don't know why.. I guess I just made a habit of it... Anyway, I was I bit concerned about that stalker thing and I tried to figure it out.

When I see his timeline I never show up in the friend box.
In fact, I never saw my picture in any of the pages of the people I often talk to and comment or post in their profiles, and when I see my profile as them, the group of 8 friends appears different to every friend of yours.

I tried to "View my timeline As" him and he only sees random friends in my box. Most are non-mutual, and I never visit their profiles more than once when I added them as friends and the only interaction I have with them is probably just a happy birthday message.

And if I change my friends settings in "Who can see your full friend list on your timeline?" to "Only Me" he can only see our 7 mutual friends.

So I believe what shows up in your friends box when you see it through your account are the friends you have more interaction with and the bottom left is the person you visit more often.

I think there's no way to find out if someone is visiting your profile.

anonymous · Answer 43 · 4/22/2012 9:45:25 PM

anonymous

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Metal,

Yes there is a way to find out who visits your profile. I opened a bogus account and visited myself (as an experiment) and saw my bogus account appearing on the top 6 again and again!

Apr 22nd, 2012 at 9:45 PM

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eden a · Answer 44 · 4/25/2012 1:59:24 PM

eden a

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Off course facebook lets you know who has been visiting your page and who is stalking you, why? because they want you to keep coming back, it is a marketing tactic, what would be the fun in facebook if we didn't know someone was interested in us, it makes it keep coming back for more to find out!

Well done facebook, I love it, I wouldn't bother with it all if I didn't know some nice girl was looking at my profile, it make me come back as I'm sure it does millions of others, who really cares if someone is stalking you or is looking at your profile, I really couldn't careless, but then again I am a bloke.

Apr 25th, 2012 at 1:59 PM

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Amy · Answer 45 · 4/26/2012 1:27:42 PM

well i dont think the 8 friends box are the ppl you have the most interaction with. because on my 8 friends box, only 2 of them are my close friends on fb, we chat to each other on a regular basis. and theres one we may talk to each other for once or twice in the past half year. besides these ppl, the other 5 ppl are all like i never talked to them since i friended them(one of them is my crush but ive only viewed his profile a lot fewer months ago) im trying to not go to anyones profile pages at all, i just interact with my friends from work and uni who i nornally interact with.

btw i think its for sure that the six ppl in the box are the ppl who have been recently viewed your page. u can also tell from how many times they viewed ur profile when u refresh your page for like 100 times, some ppl shows up more than others.

cassie · Answer 46 · 4/26/2012 7:40:42 PM

cassie

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some of my friends appear very often in BOTH boxes and we have NO friend in common. one of them appear every day on the smallest box even when we dont interact. hes a guy i almost dated so IF the people that appear on that box are in part people that have visited our page, it would make sense. the others are people i have interacted with recently and probably people that were recently connected(i have a tv actress im friend with on my little box very often,i doubt shes visiting my page every day but she's on line a lot -her or her assistant)

Apr 26th, 2012 at 7:40 PM

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nameless · Answer 47 · 4/27/2012 5:58:19 AM

@amy: I don't know..

I asked a friend (who has been stuck on my bottom right corner on my 8 friends list) to click on my profile to test how often she would show up in the top center 6 person box, but I didn't see any increase in consecutive appearances while refreshing 20 times.. It seemed like normal. Perhaps it takes several page views.. Who knows. I don't view her profile very often. Maybe once or a few times every couple of days.. We mostly message each other.
My crush on the other hand.. Shows up often occasionally. I look at her profile daily a few times, though I'm cutting it down..Hell I'm going to try and not do any interaction at all with her for a month, and see if she still says in my top 8 or top 6..

amy · Answer 48 · 4/27/2012 1:58:20 PM

To nameless

Im doing pretty much the same thing your doing, Ive been stopped checking my crush and my exs profile for fewer days but they just keep showing up in the six ppl box. now im trying to check this random guy ive never talked with on fb fewer times a day, and not check anyone elses profile at all. i will do this for maybe 2 weeks to see if hes gonna appear in the 6 ppl box.

btw i also notice that im not the only one who found the 6 ppl box might be those ppl who have visited ur profile. coz last night i randomly visit 2 of my friends on fb, this morning they appeared in that 6 box. so i think its like either the 6 box are not just they visited ur profile but those ones u visited theirs, either they found me appeared in their box so they came to my profile to see what happened.

feel like i dont know even know what im talking about...

KJ · Answer 49 · 4/28/2012 6:57:01 AM

KJ

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I have a girl who i almost dated on my 6 friends and ALWAYS on my 8 friends (some change, she's always there) and i stopped visiting her page (we interacted like once in 2 months) in the last month (maybe few visits) but she's always in my top 8 and a lot of times in the 6 friends list... oh i forgot to mention.... she is in my acquaintance list... actually the only one there, she can't see a lot of my albums and also cannot see me online but still ALWAYS on the top 8 friends list and a lot of times on the 6 friends list...
Ideas?

Apr 28th, 2012 at 6:57 AM

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i guess she has been visited your profile a lot or regularly..since you said your "almost dated" her :P – amy Apr 28th, 2012 at 8:33 AM

Anonymous · Answer 50 · 4/29/2012 3:43:47 PM

Anonymous

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There's a girl in my 8 friends box list who appear who appear EVERY time I refresh, she's always at the same place (3rd box starting from the bottom left), +- 20 who appear randomly on that list. (I have +- 50 friends)
I had a crush on her some times ago, I watched some of her pics, but now I rarely do that anymore, I've interacted far more with other people since then & they're not there 100% of the time like her.
She has a friend list of 1000+ friends, and when I watch her friend list, I'm at the very bottom.
Does that mean the seven box is for the one you stalk? (well I used to)

Apr 29th, 2012 at 3:43 PM

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How do the 6 friends photos at the top of Facebook Timeline get choosen?

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