Hacker News Reader

Looked at mine. First thought: whoa, I hope no one else ever sees this

Facebook you scary.

My list is all random. The first entry is my girlfriend, the next though is a random girl from college whose profile I have hardly visited more than say 4-5 times ever on Facebook. Same for others down the list.

So is it something were people are apparently assuming that it is onto something because they can see those 2 names they do not want anyone to know about among the 10 being in the top or is the result for everyone actually correct?

In the case of the latter how is it so random for me? I have Michael Arrington on the top 15 and I swear I do not stalk his profile.

Facebook's reps haven't said the list is based on just on profiles you view, they said it's based on "people you interact with" -- there may be other stuff in there, like messaging activity, or commenting, or liking. Even if you don't go directly to Arrington's profile, you can be interacting with him in the newsfeed.

I would think that clicking on links that a person posts is a good signal and thus would increase your engagement number. Other signals that probably feed into this are pictures you look at, likes, comments, groups you are in common with, etc. i.e. anything that ties you to another person, though I bet they are all weighted differently.

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