Facebook's News Feed

I always wondered how Facebook prioritizes your friends to the twenty or so that show up on your news feed once in a while. When logging into your account, Facebook automatically publishes the news of friends that are correctly relevant to your social life. I mean, lets face it, I'm not bffs with everyone of my 800+ friends, so how does facebook know which friends I'm actually interested in reading about?

I feel that Facebook's algorithm on the news feed is based off of two things. 1) the people who you stalk and 2) the people who stalk you. Admittedly, I am guilty of the occasional stalker personal. Like everyone else on facebook, I go throught the pictures, walls, and even now, friendships of people that I feel are worth stalking. While many people think that their stalkerish lifestyles are their own little secret, clearly, someone in working for facebook knows who you are looking at, and how many times your looking at them. There are applications on facebook (not legitimate or detail-based ones) but applications non the less that claim to tell you who is your stalker. These applications get 1000 hits daily simply because people want to know who is looking at them, and their everyday life. You know who has the real answer? Facebook!

So, how do you think the general people (i.e. all facebook users) feel about looking at random people's profiles now? Do you feel about look up that cute girl from highschool and ALL her pictures knowing that someone out there knows that you are looking at her profile every single day without a single facebook relationship other than just being friends? I know that I'm going to think twice next time I do so. I feel that the bottom line of this post is to say, stalk those who only want to be stalked; or rather, only look at people's profiles with no fear of getting caught. Who knows if one day, a hacker will break the algorithm and produce an application that shows your real top 10 stalkers with how many times they've seen your profile? Imagine gaining access to that app and number 1 is some dude you haven't talked to in years. I would feel totally and utterly violated. WATCH WHO YOU STALK BECAUSE ONE DAY THEY MIGHT FIND OUT!!!!

My curiosity found this site. the article is a great read on the dynamics of facebook's code.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-18/the-facebook-news-feed-how-it-works-the-10-biggest-secrets/