Nick O'Neil has the scoop on a new Facebook feature that asks members to suggest friends for new users. The feature is a refinement of the "people you may know" feature that Facebook quietly launched in March. Because new users don't have many connections, the "people you may know" feature has no friends to draw upon (since it works by seeing who you are connected to by degrees through current friends). This new feature relies on human suggestions from the few friends new users do have to fill in the gaps for new users.
"One of the biggest challenges on Facebook is the loss of new users that are not able to connect immediately with other members," writes O'Neil. "As such, Facebook is trying to engage these users as much as possible and connect them with people they may know."
We see this as further evidence that Facebook is gearing up to court the business crowd. While far less formal than LinkedIn's introductions feature, Facebook's friend suggestions could certainly be laying the groundwork for that sort of functionality. Right now friend suggestions are only prompted for new users, and they're unsolicited (i.e., users aren't asking for them), but the feature is definitely a relative to the more sophisticated introductions tools presented at LinkedIn. It is easy to imagine that once users are comfortable with the idea of suggesting connections, a request feature could then be turned on.
As we pointed out in March, Facebook already has much of the necessary infrastructure to build out a set of business networking tools to compete with LinkedIn. Some of its recent moves -- friends lists, advanced privacy features, and now friend suggestions -- suggest that Facebook sees business networking as an area it should expand into.
Image via AllFacebook.com.
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I wrote "This feels like the biggest step Facebook has taken to get closer to the type of introduction functionality that is at the heart of LinkedIn" a couple of weeks ago when they announced the people you may know feature: http://www.emaildashboard.com/2008/03/facebook-introd.html
I definitely agree that these features are pointing in that direction.
Posted by: Deva HazarikaI must admit, I was a Facebook virgin (I had an account that I never used) until a friend (who's an avid facebooker) sent me an invitation/suggestion to link up with someone we have in common. So I did. Now, I'm kind of getting into it.
I think it's nice to have the "third party friend" do an introduction (even if everyone knows each other already) because it takes the pressure off of having to respond to a direct invitation (which is pretty annoying).
Anyway, I have officially popped my facebook cherry!
Posted by: ChuckT | April 14, 2008 1:21 PMI wrote that I didn't think Facebook would work for business. When I think Facebook, I and lots of other people think kids. Not business. Maybe they will be able to change that perception.
Live From Las Vegas
Posted by: The Masked Millionaire | April 14, 2008 3:21 PMThe Masked Millionaire
tha's actually kind of cool. this is gonna increase the number of active users a lot, i guess ...
put this on http://www.tectrnd.com
Posted by: Vincent Nicolai | April 14, 2008 3:25 PMIn my opinion, orkut is a better site than facebook. It is simple, less noisy and you can reach your initial friends using gmail contact list.
Posted by: Kishor | April 14, 2008 8:31 PM