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So a bored individual sent me an email yesterday notifying me of a small glitch in Facebook that lets you see who you are stalking. I hadn’t tested it out until this morning but it may just be accurate. My profile showed up 5 individuals who I apparently stalk regularly. One of them is Caroline McCarthy, three other of them girls and one guy who’s a friend of mine. While I don’t know what the equation for determining who you are stalking is, it is definitely interesting.
It appears to have some sort of moving average because I’ve been stalking a few people recently who did not show up in my results. If you want to check out who you’ve been stalking, head over to the search box and click the down arrow two times. If that doesn’t work press up twice and it will eventually display. Facebook apparently knows about people stalking other users and this is a great way to see who you’ve been stalking.
So who have you been stalking lately?
Update
Apparently I wasn’t clear enough on how to do it. Here it is:
Step 1: Go to Facebook
Step 2: Click inside the Facebook search box
Step 3: Click down down on your keyboard. If that doesn’t work press up up.
The people you are stalking will now appear.
Update 2
Facebook is going to remove the “stalking tool”. Here is their response:
“Facebook tries to surface the people we think are most important to users to make it easier and faster for them to navigate the site and find what they are looking for. The search drop down is not a list of those that have searched for the user. It is also not a list of people whose profile the user has viewed the most or who have viewed the user’s profile the most. To avoid any confusion, this will no longer appear.”
Update 3
I’ve been able to get it to work by using the spacebar in the search box. Anybody else having similar results?
I just checked it out and it got 4 out of 5 correct. There was one person on there who I dont ever recall searching for, but 4/5 isnt too bad!
Very interesting…good thing I’m the only one that can see who I’m stalking!
I checked it too , about 4 correct but It seems to work fine .. nice trick ..
I’m not sure if this is accurate. One o f the people on my list is someone that I added last week. I have only checked their profile twice. I’m usually on FB at least 2 hours a day. Maybe it is the most recent/often people to check you profile?
hmmm im disappointed
it’s totally inaccurate! At most 1/5 correct.
omg that is spooky hahah!!
5/5 correct!
I just checked it out and it got 4 out of 5 correct. There was one person on there who I dont ever recall searching for, but 4/5 isnt too bad!
It didn’t work.
Very interesting…good thing I’m the only one that can see who I’m stalking!
I checked it too , about 4 correct but It seems to work fine .. nice trick ..
Very strange. Every search term I’ve used for the past week came up, including people I tried to find on Facebook. This looks like a Google interface problem more than anything else.
I’m not sure if this is accurate. One o f the people on my list is someone that I added last week. I have only checked their profile twice. I’m usually on FB at least 2 hours a day. Maybe it is the most recent/often people to check you profile?
hmmm im disappointed
it’s totally inaccurate! At most 1/5 correct.
omg that is spooky hahah!!
5/5 correct!
It didn’t work.
Very strange. Every search term I’ve used for the past week came up, including people I tried to find on Facebook. This looks like a Google interface problem more than anything else.
Yeah, thats a funny glitch.
I never really noticed it myself, but once I checked it out I saw that 4/5 were correct.
I also thought for a second that it would have been pretty cool if these were the girls most often viewing my profile.
I can dream…
Also try typing a space (press spacebar once)
Yeah, thats a funny glitch.
I never really noticed it myself, but once I checked it out I saw that 4/5 were correct.
I also thought for a second that it would have been pretty cool if these were the girls most often viewing my profile.
I can dream…
Also try typing a space (press spacebar once)
I’ve got a friend that works at the Facebook HQ in Palo Alto. She says it turns out it actually was a coding error on the part of facebook. It was meant to call up the 5 most searched names, but it pointed to the wrong place on the FB servers and called up the 5 people that search for you most. Since its not common knowledge that FB keeps this info outside of your profile, the PR team had to do a little clean up work.
I’ve got a friend that works at the Facebook HQ in Palo Alto. She says it turns out it actually was a coding error on the part of facebook. It was meant to call up the 5 most searched names, but it pointed to the wrong place on the FB servers and called up the 5 people that search for you most. Since its not common knowledge that FB keeps this info outside of your profile, the PR team had to do a little clean up work.
When I tried it - with spacebar - it just listed the first 5 alphabetically by first name.
I don’t think it can be solely who looks at your profile the most as me and a good friend both have each other on our 5 and yet very rarely ever go on each others profiles. Furthermore, another friend only has me as a friend on facebook and his 5 included me followed by 4 applications which don’t have the ability to search for him.. Another friend has someone on it who she stalks a lot but I know him and he most definately does not stalk her at all. Another friend also has someone who added him a week ago and thus would have to work very hard to make it into the top 5 unless it is calculated taking into account how long you have been friends. Highly possible I agree but this still doesn’t explain a few things. However it could be a combination of who you view the most AND who views you the most. Or even a few more additional factors taken into account.
Also works if you type a hyphen (-)
I don’t think it can be solely who looks at your profile the most as me and a good friend both have each other on our 5 and yet very rarely ever go on each others profiles. Furthermore, another friend only has me as a friend on facebook and his 5 included me followed by 4 applications which don’t have the ability to search for him.. Another friend has someone on it who she stalks a lot but I know him and he most definately does not stalk her at all. Another friend also has someone who added him a week ago and thus would have to work very hard to make it into the top 5 unless it is calculated taking into account how long you have been friends. Highly possible I agree but this still doesn’t explain a few things. However it could be a combination of who you view the most AND who views you the most. Or even a few more additional factors taken into account.
Also works if you type a hyphen (-)
Nick, I’ve found a slight privacy flaw in Facebook’s Groups feature.
Find a Group with only one member (probably the creator) but whose profile you do not have access to.
The Related Groups box will show you a selection of their groups, which you’re not supposed to know!
Not the worst privacy breach, although that depends which groups you’ve joined…
Nick, I’ve found a slight privacy flaw in Facebook’s Groups feature.
Find a Group with only one member (probably the creator) but whose profile you do not have access to.
The Related Groups box will show you a selection of their groups, which you’re not supposed to know!
Not the worst privacy breach, although that depends which groups you’ve joined…
I emailed facebook to ask them what was going on and they didn’t reply, but shortly (2 hours later) after i sent the email my list no longer have 5 random/most searched people show up, just the first 5 names by first name alphabetical order! i asked my friends if theirs changed it, and theirs did too! I wonder if they changed it once and for all…
I emailed facebook to ask them what was going on and they didn’t reply, but shortly (2 hours later) after i sent the email my list no longer have 5 random/most searched people show up, just the first 5 names by first name alphabetical order! i asked my friends if theirs changed it, and theirs did too! I wonder if they changed it once and for all…
So how come my last name wasn’t blurred out in your little screen shot? Damn those hyphenated last names
So how come my last name wasn’t blurred out in your little screen shot? Damn those hyphenated last names
After the “fix”, even typing a space only appears to bring up my first 5 friends alphabetically.
After the “fix”, even typing a space only appears to bring up my first 5 friends alphabetically.
Nick,
I’ve noticed this feature this past week as well. It was meanwhile cancelled, due to your interference…
It was just introduced last week. My thesis is that it was part of a new search tool, which shows the people you have searched for the most. (Meaning if you went to their pages through links they will not be included here).
This change came with another change (which now disappeared together with this feature) - when you search for friends and type their name, the ones you typed most often in the past came up first, as opposed to alphabetically.
Nick,
I’ve noticed this feature this past week as well. It was meanwhile cancelled, due to your interference…
It was just introduced last week. My thesis is that it was part of a new search tool, which shows the people you have searched for the most. (Meaning if you went to their pages through links they will not be included here).
This change came with another change (which now disappeared together with this feature) - when you search for friends and type their name, the ones you typed most often in the past came up first, as opposed to alphabetically.
I’ve tried it but nothing comes up, I guess I’m not stalking anyone lool
It appears FB have taken it down.
Course they have Nathan you dunce. It was posted in May last year
I read elsewhere that this still works with a certain configuration of keystrokes, as of August 28, 2009 - does anyone know the keystrokes? space bar and page down or page up do not seem to be the right pattern, by the way.
OMG!!!! what’s wrong with you people!!!! The “stalking tool” that you are referring to is a search history which can be found on almost any search bar. Check your Google (or any other search engine) search bar. If haven’t cleared your history it will do the exact same thing! I’d like to know how this moron got hired to do this article!
to be honest i really dont think that it works because i tried the space bar and the arrows and even the period with patients and time. i found out though, that if you put any letter in the search bar, its going to come up with the 5 recent things that you’ve searched in that category or popular things that people search for all the time/ quizes. This is NOT a way to find out who has searched for your name or you on facebook
this is just simply something that somebody probably made up in the first place so that they could just get people to look at them and say duh
thank you for reading my comment and my nasty oppinion
i hope you will find the point in this though