The Facebook chat bar

[frobalt]

When you have the Facebook chat bar open on the right hand side of the page, it shows a list of people you can chat with. It lists certain people at the top, then has a 'more friends' section (Which shows everyone else that's online in your friends list that aren't in the top section).

Recently, I noticed that someone went from being listed in the top section to the 'more friends' section, and it got me wondering how Facebook determines who is in the top section.

Googling this has given me the answer that it's to do with people viewing your profile in some way, which seems unlikely to me, as it would seem weird that Facebook would base it on that, however, based on some of the people in my top section, I can't think of what else it could be.

In there, I have:

- A guy who I know through my ex-girlfriend. I've hidden his posts from my news feed so certainly haven't interacted with him recently, nor has he interacted with my posts. I haven't spoken to him for months either.

- A girl who I've never interacted with on Facebook (I don't think anyway) at all. The only thing close to interaction we have is a few photos we're tagged in together from an event that happened a couple of months back, and even then she's only appeared in this list recently. Also, it shows her despite showing her as unavailable for chat (not even on mobile).

These are the only 2 on there who I feel are worth mentioning at the moment, but there are a couple on there I've never spoken to over facebook and have probably only interacted with in the form of a status or share liked here and there.

This isn't enough evidence to show that it is based on them viewing my profile, however I do feel it is enough to discount it being based on how much interaction between both people, so I'd like to know:

Based on what friends it shows up on your profile, what do you think it's based on?

P.S. I only say 'based on them viewing your profile' because it might not necessarily be the top X people that viewed it within Y time-frame, it could just be people that viewed it recently, or people that view it at least x times in y days, or something.

P.P.S. I also know that, without someone that works for Facebook telling us, we won't know for sure, this is pure speculation.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I dunno. The list on my account is a pretty solid list of the people I've interacted with the most in the last couple months. Maybe there's some sort of bug on your end?

Side note, I really hate the way they did that, although more the changes it caused in the newsfeed than the chat system. I'd like to see stuff from all my friends, Facebook, not just the ones you think I like the most. In some cases, I don't even actually know the people Facebook thinks I'm close friends with, they're friends of friends or members of groups that I'm involved in. Meanwhile many people I actually know don't show up on my newsfeed at all unless I remember to switch it from Top Stories to Most Recent, which is really annoying for obvious reasons.

 

[frobalt]

I dunno. The list on my account is a pretty solid list of the people I've interacted with the most in the last couple months. Maybe there's some sort of bug on your end?

It could just be a bug, I suppose. Although, for you it could just be that the people you most interact with also happen to be the people that view your profile the most (due to the fact that you interact with them the most, of course.)

In my case, I don't talk to that many people using it. Looking in my inbox at all conversations, the last 10 different people I've conversed with over facebook stretches back to 10th December.

 

[The Comedian]

I just had look at mine. I always thought facebook put the people you had conversations with on there.
but I just noticed most of them are people I almost never or never talk to.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I dunno. The list on my account is a pretty solid list of the people I've interacted with the most in the last couple months. Maybe there's some sort of bug on your end?

It could just be a bug, I suppose. Although, for you it could just be that the people you most interact with also happen to be the people that view your profile the most (due to the fact that you interact with them the most, of course.)

In my case, I don't talk to that many people using it. Looking in my inbox at all conversations, the last 10 different people I've conversed with over facebook stretches back to 10th December.

True. I've always understood it to be less the people you chatted with, and more the ones you interacted with in general, though. Likes, comments, that sort of thing. In fact if you do a view source on your news feed, there's a set of profile numbers that, if you plug them into the URL, lead to the profiles of what Facebook has deemed your top friends, in order. So it's definitely not random.

 

[Esotera]

I don't have a 'more friends' section, maybe you need 30+ friends for that to come up? I'd guess it would be based on a combination of how much you interact with friends (viewing profiles etc) and whether they return the favour.

 

[frobalt]

I dunno. The list on my account is a pretty solid list of the people I've interacted with the most in the last couple months. Maybe there's some sort of bug on your end?

It could just be a bug, I suppose. Although, for you it could just be that the people you most interact with also happen to be the people that view your profile the most (due to the fact that you interact with them the most, of course.)

In my case, I don't talk to that many people using it. Looking in my inbox at all conversations, the last 10 different people I've conversed with over facebook stretches back to 10th December.

True. I've always understood it to be less the people you chatted with, and more the ones you interacted with in general, though. Likes, comments, that sort of thing. In fact if you do a view source on your news feed, there's a set of profile numbers that, if you plug them into the URL, lead to the profiles of what Facebook has deemed your top friends, in order. So it's definitely not random.

I know it's definitely not random, and it can't really be based on the interaction either. As I said in the OP, there's someone on there I've never interacted with at all and someone who I won't have interacted with for ages. And yes, by this I did mean likes/comments and even profile views.

 

[IndomitableSam]

I think it's random, it keeps recommending I talk to a friend who died a couple years ago. It also suggests my mother, those girls you hated in high school but add so you can show each other how much better you are than them but never interact with, overseas family I keep in touch with via Facebook, people I went to college with and haven't seen since, and very rarely people I actually interact with online and in the real world.

 

[DanielBrown]

Mine is in alfabetic order. ._O
Don't have a boat load of friends added though.

 

[anonymity88]

Mine's mainly people I talk to on a regular basis and then there are the anomalies:

A couple of workmates who've added me and we've never spoken once.
A bar that instead of a like page has an actual profile
My cousin who I've never spoken to on facebook (or irl for about 3 years)
And a friend of a friend who I don't speak to but he's widely known to be a 'serial liker' (one of thos guys who likes everything that everyone does, ever...)

- I guess it could be to do with profile views. Because I don't view their profiles and we've not been on chat with each other ever in some cases

 

[BrotherRool]

I figure I get anomalies when there aren't enough people online who I interact with. I've never found someone at top who I would never speak to and then found someone I would speak to on bottom.

Anyway you can be sure it's a very complicated algorithm. Facebook has access to your complete social network, the social networks of everyone on your social networks and the data and purpose to do more on relationship research than anyone else in the world.

They have your likes and interests, and the likes and interests of your friends, a record of every post that you've liked and every post that you've commented on, as well as a record of anyone who has liked your posts and commented on yours.

They've got your chat logs and a record of how long you've looked at someone elses profile and how much they've looked at yours.

The only data they have that I wouldn't count on them using, is a broad analysis of the content of your statuses combined to others, but everything else I'm sure they take into account. The system probably throws up a few blips, but it also does a pretty good job in general

 

[Nicole Larsen]

I did have the same theory... As I sat another night wondering what this might be.. I decided to start asking people that appeared on top: "Did you just view my profile?"...
The answer was a suprized "Yes!" followed by: "How did you know?"...
To test the theory further, I told them how and asked them to test it.. The following 13 people stated I was right...

But now as the Facebook changed It's layout and such.. I don't know if it is still the same as then, but I believe that it is the people who views your profile the most that is on top now.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Mine is arranged in alphabetical order. There isn't any "More friends" or anything like that, though the number of friends I have on Facebook does not even fill half the screen, so that could be why. I don't know, Facebook has always confused me with little things like this.

 

[piinyouri]

Whatever it is based on, I imagine the litany of scripts, pluggins and whatnot that I have both to make Facebook run and look better as well as my browser in general fucks it all up.

I know for a fact it only ever shows 4 max people even though many more of my friends are online.

 

[puglimore]

I agree with the theory that the person who views your stuff the most is at the top of the chat list. I searched for the answer to this because the guy at the top of my chat list is someone whose stuff I purposly do not view...not his photos, not his profile and I don't subscribe to any of his posts. Below him on the chat list is someone who I know for certain views and likes my photos and posts. I'm looking for others who think this is the answer.

 

[Amy Peterson]

I really, really hope the person on top of my chat list views my stuff the most. I'd be so happy. <3 I googled this trying to see if I could verify it.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Seems to be people I've interacted with the most- annoyingly that means it's a solid list of exes for the first few. It would pretty odd if it was a list of people that viewed my stuff the most, but I suppose it does make sense.