A post on Gawker yielded a moderate wave of panic across the Web when it asserted that by typing the "down" arrow into Facebook's search box, you could see a list of the five people who view your profile the most: Not quite. It was more likely a list of five people whose profiles a user visits frequently, or at least something along those lines. Some users promptly nicknamed it the "stalker list."
Even more curious: Facebook pulled the feature within hours of the Gawker post going up.
"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," a statement from Facebook issued on Tuesday read. "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."
Whatever the algorithm behind it, the tool was pretty accurate. My "stalker list" consisted of two close friends, two people I'd dated relatively recently, and my younger brother, whose profile I occasionally check up on to make sure he's staying out of trouble--I know, I know, I'm such a good sister.
According to Nick O'Neill at AllFacebook, I was one of the people he "stalked." I'm, uh...flattered?
Getting in touch with people from your past can be difficult, especially if they don't show up in a Google search or on popular social networks. The truth is, without a large Internet presence or a last name such as "Einstein," you're going to be tough to find for the casual searcher, which is where Long Time Lost attempts to fill in the gaps. Long Time Lost essentially lets you create a beacon to get the attention of the person for whom you're searching or others who know their whereabouts. This virtual beacon shows up as a result on several major search engines when people search for that name.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
The beacon itself is a small, user-written description of how you know that person, why you're looking for them, and whatever other information you feel is pertinent. You also get to upload any pictures you might find helpful to identify that person or jog their memory as to what you looked like in 1986 (you still wear that Members Only jacket, right?) Clicking on the picture makes it pop up. You can then either provide the searcher with more information or identify yourself as the person they're looking for. Doing so sends the original searcher an e-mail with an update on their search status.
So far, the service has connected 56 people, pretty impressive considering there's only about 600 people listed on the service. Short of hiring a private investigator, there's not really an easy way to track people down, which is where this service might appeal to the casual searcher. I still think once you've finally tracked them down, they might be a little creeped out you gave them their own Google search result. I know I would.
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