Cambridge University discovers formula to find friends on Facebook and Twitter

Cambridge University scientists have discovered a formula for users to get more friends and followers on Facebook and Twitter.

A team of researchers says making contact with ‘friends of friends’ is a flawed way of meeting like-minded people with a shared interest.

Experts at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory claim better social networking friends are found via links to favourite hang-outs such as pubs, gyms, schools and offices.

Researcher Salvatore Scellato, a PhD student, hopes the theory will be used by social network sites like Facebook and Twitter.

He said: “Our research solves a big problem for social networking sites. Facebook has millions of people on it now so it takes hours to find people you might know.

“But if the sites compare the locations users have registered on their profiles, they will be able to predict who a user may want to be friends with. By combining place friends with friends-of-friends, we can make the prediction space about 15 times smaller and yet, cover 66 per cent of new social ties.

“More people are now using social networking sites on their mobile phone and uploading their locations – so the information is available.

“Offices, gyms and schools are more likely to aid development rather than other places such as football stadiums or airports as it’s highly unlikely people will develop a social connection.

“In the future we hope to be able to understand why people decide to delete their social networking friends and maybe predict who they might want to delete.”

The year-long research project compared location information from users of the social networking site Gowalla over a period of four months.

Salvatore, and his colleges Nastasios Noulas and Cecilia Mascolo, discovered that about 30 per cent of new social links appeared among users who went to the same places.

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‘Spamford’ Wallace indicted for Facebook hack

So-called spam king Sanford Wallace has been charged with hacking the accounts of half a million Facebook users to send 27 million spam emails.

According to the indictment, Wallace carried out three attacks on the social networking site between November 2008 and March 2009. He faces a potential 40-year jail sentence and a $2 million fine for multiple counts of fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer and criminal contempt.

The 43-year-old allegedly managed to evade Facebook’s spam filters to post messages on his victims’ friends’ walls. Clicking on a link within the message led to a website that harvested names and account details.

“Facebook’s computer entwork sustained damage from the large amount of computer network resources used during the defendant’s transmission of spam messages through its system, which resulted in Facebook spending a significant amount of time, money and resources responding to and fixing the damage caused to its network as well as to protect and defend its network from future spam campaigns by the defendant,” the indictment reads.

Wallace has been in the spamming business a long time, allegedly sending out more than 30 million spam messages during the 1990s. Facebook first sued him in 2009, and he was ordered to stay away from Facebook – but did so within a month. While he was ordered to pay Facebook $711 million in damages, he filed for bankruptcy soon after.

Wallace was yesterday released on a $100,000 bond – and ordered to stayy off Facebook and MySpace. He’ll appear in court in San Jose on August 22.

 

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