Facebook is rounding out the social graph

Over the last few weeks I have been seeing a number of Facebook friend requests from people but wasn’t sure why. Sure enough when I logged in it was clear that Facebook was directing people to “find friends” and told me who else had done so via logging into and scrapping my contact list. In my case using Gmail Facebook was able to go in and find 500 people I am not yet connected with. Obviously that number is absurd and nobody has 500 friends, but the social implications are clear.

This move over the last two weeks represents a move by Facebook to reach back into your social graph (in my case via Gmail) and see who else you can get connected with.

Most uber geeks like me did this years ago, but maybe have not revisited the idea in awhile.

Its a smart move as more people joined up in the last few years, and more people are using personal email accounts.

Finalizing your own social graph on Facebook means more connections which translates to more usage. It also better connects the system, completing the network effects that may be stagnant due to infrequent mass friending.

It is also interesting to think that this move represents a time where most of the people you know, and have emailed with, are now probably members of Facebook. Yes, some are not, but I was amazed at my own list to see who “got on board”.

Having a complete profile means better targeting, better spam filtering, less privacy, and hopefully a better experience. We shall see.