What percentage of your Facebook friends are married? Who lives closest to the North Pole? And who is that person who connects you to more people than anyone else on the social network?
You may think you know what's going on with all of your Facebook friends, but a new app from computerized engine Wolfram Alpha proves you only know the start of it.
The company rolled out on Wednesday night an updated version of its analytics tool, which combines its own data with your Facebook profile to interesting things you might not otherwise know. By giving the app access to your profile, it provides a completely visual report based on your activity and who you know.
First, it highlights some basics, including the people with whom I have the most mutual friends, how many I know in various countries and my most common friend names (apparently I know 13 Jessicas, 12 Matts and 12 Mikes). The report also noted how many pictures and status updates I've posted in the past year, and which have gotten the most Likes and comments. Not to mention, I found out I was born on a Thursday.
But data visualization is the star here. Friends are placed on a color-coded map based on how you know them, such as from high school, college and work. The report takes a much deeper dive from there though by grouping peers into five categories: social insiders, social outsiders, social connectors, social neighbors and social gateways.
Wolfram Alpha describes social insiders as people you have a lot of friends in common with, such as a best friend since elementary school. Social outsiders, however, are those with whom you have no or few mutual friends, like that person you met at a bus stop once while traveling overseas.
Meanwhile, social gateway friends know a lot of people outside of your network — such as the editor of your college newspaper — and a social neighbor has few friends outside your network, such as a sibling. Finally, a social connector is someone that connects a cluster of friends. It's fascinating to see where friends are placed based on your history and relationship with them.
The company also improved some of its existing features, such as the "word cloud," which reveals the most common words you use in wall posts. Here's mine:
Although Wolfram Alpha was experiencing some issues with users downloading the app, it said it's working to correct the problem. After giving it a few tries, I was able to access the platform and retrieve my personalized report.
For a full report on your Facebook profile, friends and network, click here or type "Facebook Report" into the search form.
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