Facebook Friends List Order

Updated December 2012

If you are looking for information about the latest hoax about "who views your profile"
go here instead:
http://abrax.us/Facebook/WhoViewsProfile.php

Essentially, that list is just facebook's way of making it more convenient for you to continually interact with the people you usually do, without having people you dont interact with show up in that list.

Some people are under the impression that the "top friends" that display on your profile/timeline are the people who have viewed your profile, but this is not true. In fact, the opposite is actually true. Think of them like "suggested interaction" in the way that facebook has noticed that you might want to interact with that friend again soon.

Now... what does this actually mean? I'll attempt to explain it in general terms... think of it like this...

The first thing to understand is that the top friends you see when looking at your own profile is not the same as the top friends that are seen when someone else looks at your profile. When you look at someone else's profile, and you have mutual friends with them, those mutual friends will be the ones more likely to show up in the list of top friends.

Things that count as "interaction"
  • If YOU keep viewing/stalking THEIR profile
  • If YOU keep using search to look them up
  • If you and another person are friends both using the same app
  • If someone sends you a private message
  • If you send someone a private message
  • If someone posts on your wall
  • If you post on someone's wall
  • If someone likes something on your profile or photos
  • If you like something on someone's profile or photos
  • If someone comments on something on your profile or photos
  • If you comment on something on someone's profile or photos
  • If another person views your profile
  • If you view another person's profile

As you can see, there are many ways to interact with someone else on facebook, and they all count towards who is displayed in your top friends.