Random Thoughts Thread

[Luke]

For funsies I've polled my FB friends to see if they've even clicked a link to what is trending on my list.

I've heard back from 10% and so far it's a solid "no".

But I do have one friend who has about 1,000 friends on fb, so she may be the culprit.

[Jmustang1968]

For funsies I've polled my FB friends to see if they've even clicked a link to what is trending on my list.

I've heard back from 10% and so far it's a solid "no".

But I do have one friend who has about 1,000 friends on fb, so she may be the culprit.

Solid statistical model you have going there

I dont have the same things trending on mine.

[Luke]

Solid statistical model you have going there

Like I said, it's only for funsies. I'm into algorithms, so it's something of interest. If Facebook really "knew" me, none of the trending topics I see would be there...except for the greenville related one.

Really interested on how they exactly do their data mining and put it to use. If "Steve Spielberg set to direct Indiana Jones with Pratt" was trending, I'd click on it. But the stuff that shows up for me...P U.

[Soldier Blue]

Does anyone know the price to ship a game to Europe from the U.S. via USPS? I swear I use to ship games oversees for like $5.50, but everything I'm seeing online says it will cost like $11.48 first class mail international.

[Hobie-wan]

Does anyone know the price to ship a game to Europe from the U.S. via USPS? I swear I use to ship games oversees for like $5.50, but everything I'm seeing online says it will cost like $11.48 first class mail international.

http://www.USPS.com/

Postage really went nuts in the past few years.

[Soldier Blue]

Wow, I guess so. It's been a few since I've shipped oversees.

[jp1]

I think perhaps the trending on fb is regional? Luke and I don't have too much in common, yet my trending topics are an exact match for his each time he posts them. What are the odds of that?

[dsheinem]

I think perhaps the trending on fb is regional? Luke and I don't have too much in common, yet my trending topics are an exact match for his each time he posts them. What are the odds of that?

It is partly regional, like when I had a lot of stuff pop up about Penn State after JoePa got his wins reinstated a month or so ago. In addition, I have a lot of friends who went to Penn State and, occasionally, have posted about the school in addition to having the school linked to their profile. This story was little more than a blip in the daily sports news cycle elsewhere.

But yes - the point is that the "trending" topics you see use a combo of many factors - probably something like a formula that determines a particular mix of:

-global trends
-national trends
-regional trends
-your stated interests (e.g. what you've "liked" in the past)
-your friends and their stated interests
-your history of link clicking from within Facebook
-your friends clicking from within Facebook
-your GPS history
-your age, occupation, and other demographic info they may have

Most likely there are some kind of considerations about how popular story X is across these various (likely weighted) categories that would then make it appear as "trending".

I am not sure why this is so confusing or surprising to people, especially if they have much interest in algorithms (maybe I am reading your reactions wrong?). This is the kind of thing that makes social media such a holy grail for advertisers that can better target individual demographics...

[Stark]

I am not sure why this is so confusing or surprising to people, especially if they have much interest in algorithms (maybe I am reading your reactions wrong?). This is the kind of thing that makes social media such a holy grail for advertisers that can better target individual demographics...

I don't think anyone is confused about how targeted advertising works. Maybe they just didn't realize that "trending" on FB would be using similar algorithms. Nothing about it suggests it is anything other than trending on FB in general.

[jp1]

Makes sense to me. I'm sure FB can afford a good algorithm on the back end. I have very little interest in algorithms.

Anyway, I just thought strange with our seemingly much different lifestyles and interests that our trends would align so often.