by Sangeeta Deogawanka

Created on: November 23, 2009   Last Updated: November 24, 2009

The ultimate hangout for connecting and sharing, Facebook is just the place for you if you are looking for friends. You can search your friends even while keeping your own profile and personal details private.

Facebook offers focused searching for friends with various user-friendly tools at your disposal. They are easy to use, yet very effective. At the same time the extensive streaming of information and sharing at Facebook, helps you trace a friend who may even be using an anonymous name or a pseudonym.

Once you have opened an account and created your own Facebook profile, these are some ways you can look for friends:

Ask around and Search the Facebook Network :

Ask your friends and colleagues whether they have a Facebook profile. In most likelihood, they will. You can tell them to send you an invite. Alternately, you can use the site's most simple search option, by typing their names in the top right 'Search Box' on the menu bar on any of your pages. You will get a search result corresponding to the name, which may often be in multiples. Match the face to the person you know and send an invite. If you cannot figure out from the profile photograph, check out from their profile details and list of friends, to match the right person to the name.

Focused Search

You can also use the 'Friends' tab right at the top left on the menu bar. The pull down menu lists four tools related to friends. Clicking the 'Friends' tab leads you to the main landing page for finding friends.

Find friends on your email lists:

Where would you like to begin with? Search for the Facebook profile of friends on your address book? Then use the tool 'Find People you Email', to know in a flash if any of your friends have a Facebook presence. So go ahead and feed in all your email addresses one by one.

Find friends on your contact lists:

If you wish to broaden your search to your friends in other contact lists, Facebook gives you that choice too! The 'Upload Contact File' tab can import your contacts automatically from Microsoft Outlook or any file on your Desktop or external drive. Facebook even goes a step further by assisting you on 'How to Create a Contact File'.

Find friends on your IM list:

Hey, what about your IM (Instant Messenger) buddies? Well at Facebook, you can import your 'AIM Buddy List' if you use the AOL Instant Messenger or 'Windows Live Contacts' (for Windows Live Messenger.) Tracking your friends at Facebook couldn't be any easier.

Now you know which of your regular friends

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