September 25, 2007 107 Comments

Facebook-Let Me See My Friends

According to an article about Mark Zuckerberg in the current issue of Wired Magazine, one of the goals of Facebook is to organize one’s real life friends online, mapping what he’s called the “social graph.” I was thinking about this, and I have to say: Facebook does a HORRIBLE job of mapping this out for ME.

I Can’t See

If I click my “Friends” tab in Facebook, I see an alphabetical list. There are a few other ways to organize this list, but in none of the cases does this map to my real universe. I can’t, for instance, group Jim Long and Jonny Goldstein together, even though I know they both are in the DC area, are both media makers, and are both people I’d want to think about in similar ways. I just can’t see people in this fashion. My own friends are shuffled into a deck in an order I have no power over. (Yes, I’ve heard of “Top Friends.” I use it. Not enough.)

And I want tags to sort in other ways, like “Twitter friends” and “People to call when I’m sad” and “People who might help my business goals.” What do you think, Robert or Jeff? With thousands of friends, don’t you wish the organization would be just a little more David Weinberger for you?

What I Want

I want to slice and dice this data any way I choose. I want tagging. I want visual shuffling, the same way I do with business cards. Know how I organize my business cards? By event. If I met you at TechCrunch40, your card is right there beside other people I met there.

I want ways to message people or notify people geographically. “Chris Brogan is in San Francisco with a few hours to kill.” Sure, you see that status message on your news feed, but if you’re like me, and have more than a few hundred friends, these needles get lost in haystacks.

If YOU Won’t Slice It, Let Me

Is there an app I could write to do this? (By “I” and “write,” I mean someone smart who writes apps, and I would, say, either pay them or encourage them a lot). What’s up with this? Could we break open the “friend” prison, and let me see my friends my way?

Visual Data

And now for something completely different. I want my damned data my way all the time. I want that Microsoft Surfaces interface. I know. Sacrilege. A Mac guy just said he wanted a Microsoft product. But I do. I want to stack my info my way. I want to see things in a way that makes sense to my needs. For instance, I want Gmail notifier to do it my way. I want my files to slide around in piles. I want searches to be heat maps and graphical and more than just text.

Not in Facebook. Everywhere. But hey, if the new rumbling in town – Facebook is Google – is to be taken forward, then I want some better control and visualization. Have you ever thought about just how much we use our qwerty keyboards to do just that? To type words? Why aren’t we coming up with new ways to move things around, and see things not just as lists of text (Look at GMAIL and Google Reader), but perhaps as overlaying data structures? Where is that?

Okay, Zuckerberg. Give me back my friends, and you! Write some apps or something. Okay?

What do you think? Am I alone on this one?

Pssst!:Subscribing to my free feed means you’ll never miss a post!

Related posts:

  1. Facebook- When In Doubt
  2. Things To Do on Facebook
  3. Three Things LinkedIN Does Better than Facebook
  4. Fix Your Facebook Profile Now
  5. Scrabulous on Facebook

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  • http://seriousaboutcamo.typepad.com Clay Newton

    I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Not just friends, but everything in FB. For instance, with posted items, how do you instill order?

    I agree: all data should be available for filtering… why not use some form of automagical tag clouding. Like when I post an item, or friend someone, FB could generate a list of active terms and go from there. Of course, that is a major technical feat, but that’s why Zuck et al are such awesome geeks, right?

  • http://seriousaboutcamo.typepad.com Clay Newton

    I have been thinking about this a lot lately. Not just friends, but everything in FB. For instance, with posted items, how do you instill order?

    I agree: all data should be available for filtering… why not use some form of automagical tag clouding. Like when I post an item, or friend someone, FB could generate a list of active terms and go from there. Of course, that is a major technical feat, but that’s why Zuck et al are such awesome geeks, right?

  • Brett A. Meyers

    Chris,

    Just added your blog to my netvibes page Fri. of last week and have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts, especially the one written above. Will be a regular reader from here on out.

    I would argue/conceed that Facebook does a phenomenal job of delivering a ‘fun, interactive (somewhat) intuitive’ tool for people to use…However, I agree completely that it does a miserable job of actually ‘mapping’ my real-world relationships. There is no contextual separation between all of my hundreds of friends, no way to gauge which ‘news feed’ is the one that is actually relevant to me, no (organized) way to share information between specific groups of friends, etc…

  • Brett A. Meyers

    Chris,

    Just added your blog to my netvibes page Fri. of last week and have thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts, especially the one written above. Will be a regular reader from here on out.

    I would argue/conceed that Facebook does a phenomenal job of delivering a ‘fun, interactive (somewhat) intuitive’ tool for people to use…However, I agree completely that it does a miserable job of actually ‘mapping’ my real-world relationships. There is no contextual separation between all of my hundreds of friends, no way to gauge which ‘news feed’ is the one that is actually relevant to me, no (organized) way to share information between specific groups of friends, etc…

  • http://www.chrisbrogan.com chrisbrogan

    Hi Brett- glad to have you on board, and thank you.

    You’re right. I should have stated that Facebook has done wonderfully with a great swath of usability. I’m really appreciative of their overall usability.

    Thanks for reminding me.

  • http://www.chrisbrogan.com chrisbrogan

    Hi Brett- glad to have you on board, and thank you.

    You’re right. I should have stated that Facebook has done wonderfully with a great swath of usability. I’m really appreciative of their overall usability.

    Thanks for reminding me.

  • http://www.liron.de Liron

    I think we will start seeing the type of interaction design you made note of in the very near future. As applications and services move from the static to the dynamic, a whole range of users are starting to pop up on the internet who have more intuition-based needs than the “Netizen” of the 1990′s (remember the time they were called “Netizens”?).

    With the rise of social networks, I believe interaction design as a whole is going to be shifting web services into a more “real-world”-like experience, like you described.

    Facebook has a lot going for it in terms of usability, but the issue you mentioned goes far beyond Facebook and reaches out to the way interaction between people on the internet is currently handled. I think we’ve got some interesting years ahead of us in this field.

    Thanks for the post, I think you raised some very valid issues.

  • http://www.liron.de Liron

    I think we will start seeing the type of interaction design you made note of in the very near future. As applications and services move from the static to the dynamic, a whole range of users are starting to pop up on the internet who have more intuition-based needs than the “Netizen” of the 1990′s (remember the time they were called “Netizens”?).

    With the rise of social networks, I believe interaction design as a whole is going to be shifting web services into a more “real-world”-like experience, like you described.

    Facebook has a lot going for it in terms of usability, but the issue you mentioned goes far beyond Facebook and reaches out to the way interaction between people on the internet is currently handled. I think we’ve got some interesting years ahead of us in this field.

    Thanks for the post, I think you raised some very valid issues.

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  • Ed M

    From the “Interesting you mention this” department and O’Reilly Radar…

    “Facebook developers and partners now have their own conference, Graphing Social Patterns” where you can “learn more about social networking platforms, applications, marketing, and strategy”. There is also going to be developmental coding/contests with Facebook apps.

    So here is an interesting conference where someone can help affect changes outlined here within the social media tools and collaborate with other social media types.

  • Ed M

    From the “Interesting you mention this” department and O’Reilly Radar…

    “Facebook developers and partners now have their own conference, Graphing Social Patterns” where you can “learn more about social networking platforms, applications, marketing, and strategy”. There is also going to be developmental coding/contests with Facebook apps.

    So here is an interesting conference where someone can help affect changes outlined here within the social media tools and collaborate with other social media types.

  • Chris Hassett

    facebook is like most sites, only concerned with making its founders and venture investors wealthy. they could give a rat’s tooty about your friend ideas

  • http://huh? Chris Hassett

    facebook is like most sites, only concerned with making its founders and venture investors wealthy. they could give a rat’s tooty about your friend ideas

  • http://www.scottmonty.com Scott Monty

    Have you tried the Group Friends application? http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=7275642702&ref=s

  • http://www.scottmonty.com Scott Monty

    Have you tried the Group Friends application? http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=7275642702&ref=s

  • http://apple-of-my-i.com/marshals-corner/?cat=3 marshal sandler

    The Social Media Market might just be the next great market for Advertisers ! If it loses site of it’s friends, it may wind up like the auto industry Dead As Custer in the US ! Business exists for profit and it is always the few who get wealthy from the mass audience ! Microsoft has always marketed to to a large and diverse audience, Gates will never lose site of his or our friends ! If it happens Facebook with Microsoft’s business savvy , won’t leave us behind we are bucks.

  • http://apple-of-my-i.com/marshals-corner/?cat=3 marshal sandler

    The Social Media Market might just be the next great market for Advertisers ! If it loses site of it’s friends, it may wind up like the auto industry Dead As Custer in the US ! Business exists for profit and it is always the few who get wealthy from the mass audience ! Microsoft has always marketed to to a large and diverse audience, Gates will never lose site of his or our friends ! If it happens Facebook with Microsoft’s business savvy , won’t leave us behind we are bucks.

  • Rachael loggie

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  • http://myfriends Rachael loggie

    ok so i can will do my facebook with you i could go on my websites is www,myspacetv.ca for go the white stripes this music is ansome.

  • http://www.Hilaryduff.ca Rachael loggie
  • http://www.Hilaryduff.ca Rachael loggie

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  • http://www.klaraqefalia.com yllbote

    it was great !

  • http://www.klaraqefalia.com yllbote

    it was great !

  • jade pethers

    how can i get in to facebook x

  • jade pethers

    how can i get in to facebook x

  • leahburns

    What happened to MY FRIENDS ? They don't show on the left side of the screen anymore.

  • leahburns

    What happened to MY FRIENDS they used to show up on the left side of screen

    • Joysalohaw

      mine don’t show up either. anyone know the answer to this?

    • Joysalohaw

      mine don’t show up either. anyone know the answer to this?

  • bettydurham

    i can not get all mr friends come up on facebook why betty durham

  • Becca123452010

    my face book is not letting me on so i wont be on untill i rember my password

  • Brdlvr3

    I can't get posts from my husbands account, no blocks wtf??

  • Whitewolf5262

    I HATE BEING ASKED TO IDENTIFY MY FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING THIS FOR
    PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK IN NEW YORK ARE NOT HAVING THIS PROBLEM,SO WHY THE HELL AM I ,AND I,M NOT TO HAPPY ABOUT IT EITHER

  • Chris

    OK, glad I'm not the only one who can't work out how Facebook works. Yup, like many posters here, I can't even *see* my friends any more. I have about 100 friends, but Facebook claims I have 11. I can't see who these mysterious 11 are, though, since when I click on the link that says “Friends (11)” it shows me a few friend requests, and a few people I “might” now – but it doesn't show me my friends.

    It's the worst imaginable user interface. What are they thinking of?

  • davidlittlewood

    ive been trying to get my full list up of family and friends list but it will not come up everytime i press friends

    • Davidlittlewood

      i can t get my friends list up and family members

  • Beautifulll_461

    I can’t see my online friends, not on my profile/homepage or at the bottom of my screen i have been trying forever , i don’t think i did anything wrong! What is pissing me off is i am organiszing my online friends for a party tomorrow. What is going on i need this solved quickly

  • Maryem1957

    what happened to the facebook page? I have no friends!

    • Andriancasberry

      hey leh kenalan ngan awak ke……

  • Mauro

    nao consigo ver a minha lista de amigos

  • Jjarmon

    Why can’t I get a list and/or profiles of all my facebook friends? This info is essential for my best use of facebook. You used to have this – why not now? Joyce Jarmon

  • Jjarmon

    Why can’t I get a list and/or profiles of all my facebook friends? This info is essential for my best use of facebook. You used to have this – why not now? Joyce Jarmon

  • Daruma

    Like you, my few friends have disappeared, but it’s easy to pull up people requesting to be friends that I don’t know… No more thumbnail pics of my friends or any link to see who my friends are… At least you’re lucky that you can pull up a list of friends because I can’t even find anything to click to do that. Since there’s no real customer service or help for this, facebook is almost useless. Only people I can find are the ones I’ve messaged or if they post. Suppose facebook is more interested in numbers and people continually adding friends then a person keeping in touch/interacting with the friends they have or want to interact with. Aboiut the only way I can see my friend list is if an ap wants me to send an ad to them, supppose facebook makes money off of that, so it’s why I can see who my friends are. I know I should know who they are, but several are colege friends of my kids that asked me to add them early on and I didn’t want to seem rude by ignoring their request since I really didn’t know them. BUt Today some guy’s posts showed up on my facebook page and I don’t remember ading him… and wanted to see if he’s on the list, buit can’t find my friend’s list to check… I’m not the only person with this no friends list access problem… Suppose if you’re readng this, Mark, not being able to view your facebook friends really Zucks!!!

  • Daruma

    Like you, my few friends have disappeared, but it’s easy to pull up people requesting to be friends that I don’t know… No more thumbnail pics of my friends or any link to see who my friends are… At least you’re lucky that you can pull up a list of friends because I can’t even find anything to click to do that. Since there’s no real customer service or help for this, facebook is almost useless. Only people I can find are the ones I’ve messaged or if they post. Suppose facebook is more interested in numbers and people continually adding friends then a person keeping in touch/interacting with the friends they have or want to interact with. Aboiut the only way I can see my friend list is if an ap wants me to send an ad to them, supppose facebook makes money off of that, so it’s why I can see who my friends are. I know I should know who they are, but several are colege friends of my kids that asked me to add them early on and I didn’t want to seem rude by ignoring their request since I really didn’t know them. BUt Today some guy’s posts showed up on my facebook page and I don’t remember ading him… and wanted to see if he’s on the list, buit can’t find my friend’s list to check… I’m not the only person with this no friends list access problem… Suppose if you’re readng this, Mark, not being able to view your facebook friends really Zucks!!!

    • Adnan

      hy

  • omar lowery

    Type your comment here.i am searching for my x-girlfriend name toni jefferson she use to live in lansing mi

  • Tracymathews

    some of my friends are on my facebook but some aint and i sent a friend request to them

    • Pravin6088

      helo hai………..

  • Adnan Ahmad

    i searching for my good girl friend asma she live in peshawar pakistan

  • Rosemaryscarbrough

    I want ALL of my friends exactly the way I had them!!

  • Roadangel21844

    I also want my friends exactly the way I had them

  • Emmanuel Amankwah50

    I want to find my friends on facebook

  • Leexiljin

    i canot she my frind photo in my wall

  • Ccrider1254

    I’m new to facebook, and now for some reason, I have an alphabetical list down the right side on friends tab. What do I do to get it back to friends pictures?

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