Have you ever wondered why Facebook always shows you what you want to see? The news feed filters out people you never talk to and presents you with info about people you like. Do you know how Facebook does this? Or, when you start typing a name in the search box, do you know how Facebook predicts what you are trying to type? Most people don’t even notice this happening. And that’s what Mark Zuckerburg and his team want. They want you to go onto Facebook and be immersed in the information you see right when you log in. It’s not magic, yet it’s not all that complicated either. All of this can be described by the mathematics of Facebook.
So much of the site’s refinement and smoothness is based on math. When you want to know something, it’s already in front of you. You don’t need to go out and search to find the info that is relevant to you; Facebook does that behind the scenes, using numbers. Everything is based on algorithms. Everything that you do on Facebook is recorded and used to make your experience better. Say you click on your friend’s profile and looked through her photos - Facebook now knows that you want to see information about this person more often than the friend you never talk to. When you post on a wall, or when you chat, or when you send a message (or have any other type of connection on the site), Facebook will know that you want to consume information about this individual.
One of the biggest ways that Facebook knows your true “friends” from your online acquaintances is through photos. Who else is tagged in the photos that you’re tagged in? Or better yet - who is tagged in your profile pictures? Facebook realizes that these people are people that you spend time with (in the real world, off of the internet), and the site uses this knowledge to its advantage.
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| From The Social Network, Columbia Pictures 2010 |
Complex mathematical formulas and equations are used by the site to analyze all this data that it collects. As seen in The Social Network, some of the code used for Zuckerburg’s Facesmash website and Facebook are based on algorithms ranking users, preferences and every possible relationship that you have online. Brilliant mathematicians, computer scientists and coders work to invent and continually improve the math that defines what you see on Facebook.From personal experience, Facebook does an excellent job knowing what its users like and what they do not. The right sidebar of Facebook often contains links to friends’ photo albums and photos related to the page you’re currently looking at. I’ve been with friends who sit there and click through the photo suggestions and then click on the new suggestions and so forth, wasting so much time. The click through percentages of these suggested links must be astronomically higher than any side ads on other websites, like Google.
I love how Facebook is so dependent on mathematics. I am currently studying applied mathematics at UC Berkeley and would kill for the opportunity to work with math at a place such as Facebook. The power of math and the power of Facebook scare me a little, though. I hope Facebook doesn’t know more about my "friends" than I do.
Sanketh -- I find it really interesting how Facebook is able to know all of this information. I feel it has a lot to do with psychology in addition to math. Their systems must be able to predict more than just what is on the surface, but be able to make assumptions, which are rooted in psychology. The scary thing is how much facebook then knows about us, maybe even more than we know. Facebook is a business and is actively selling this information. So as we continue to look at privacy issues, we have to note the importance of how facebook can sell data on you that even you don't know.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a lot of intelligence for someone to be able to create the algorithms and apply them to something as interesting as Facebook. Thankfully, Mark Zuckerberg has all the intelligence involving math and computer technology, and he clearly knows how to work it to his advantage. Facebook would not be as addicting to people if they didn't see what they wanted to see, so Zuckerberg surely knew that "important" things had to be what show up on people's news feeds. It's impressive how much math is involved in Facebook without many people knowing.
ReplyDelete- Maria Ostovic
If facebook didn’t have this math element to it, it would cut the time I spend on facebook in half. There are so many times I see the photo memories box and end up looking through dozens of old picture albums. I also wonder how facebook decides what picture to put in the “See Friendship” application. It’s eerie how well they capture friendships. I’m guessing its based on a combination of number of views and comments…but I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting how math can be applied to social relationships. It's a testament to Zuckerberg and his team that have the intuition to apply the psychology of modern social relationships to a working algorithm to boost the average user time spent on Facebook. It's pretty genius when you think about how seamless it's integrated into the Facebook platform.
ReplyDelete-Inga Chen
I think this is the genius of FB. There are thousands of sites where you can interact with others, but you end up wading through unwanted rants, or comments by people you don't know or don't like. As you say, it's scary, but scary in an awe-inspiring way.
ReplyDelete(I'm signed into my editorial google account, which is why my info says 'editor' there... hmmm....)