by Matt Bender

Created on: November 23, 2009   Last Updated: April 19, 2011

Having "friends" makes communication easy on social networking sites such as Facebook. This guide intends to make searching for your friends on Facebook as easy as possible.

The easiest way to search for friends can be found in the search bar at the top of the screen. Facebook has incorporated an algorithm which identifies which people have mutual friends and other similarities, such as academic institution, thereby making friend-finding significantly easier. 

If the auto-ID feature doesn't work, a user can hit the "See more results for ____" at the bottom of the drop-down menu. On the left side of the screen, users should select the "People" option. Another layer of filters will be available to search by Location, Education, or Workplace.

The next best option for finding friends can be found by hitting the "Account" drop-down menu in the top-right portion of the screen, and hitting the "Edit Friends" link. Then, on the left-hand side of the screen, there is a "Find Friends" link.

The first option on this page requires users to give their email address and password for a personal email account. Facebook will load all information from that email address to use as search material; for example, if Facebook finds email address A, profiles that refer to that email address will be selected. All relevant matches will be displayed after the search. Facebook will search a large selection of email service providers, to include Hotmail, AOL, and Skype, among others.

Another option on this page for finding friends is offered under the title "People You May Know" tool. Facebook generates a large selection of possible contacts you may know by taking into consideration mutual friends, education, and location, among other things. This auto-identifier makes identifying friends fairly easy because users can rapidly identify names or faces they know and can promptly add those friends or acquaintances as "Facebook Friends". 

A second way of accessing this same page is through the dark blue "Friend Request" icon at the top-left of the screen. By pressing this icon, a drop-down menu will appear, with a "Find Friends" link on the top-right corner of the box. The search box will again provide an opportunity for email address entries, and will also provide the "People You May Know" tool lower on the page.

Any of these options should make searching for friends on Facebook fairly easy. Being able to find friends makes enjoying the social atmosphere on Facebook that much easier.

Learn more about this author, Matt Bender.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.