Is it possible to know who viewed you on Facebook?

IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE TO KNOW WHO VIEWED YOUR FACEBOOK PROFILE?

Question! Does it matter these days who viewed your Facebook profile, anyway? Maybe it does to the extent that you would like to know which guy or girl checked you out most so that you can gauge their interest depending on your motive, or maybe you have some kind of business and would like to know who is interested.  However, if you would be honest with yourself, you hardly check profiles these days because Facebook provides everything in NEWSFEEDS and the TICKER on the top right corner of your newsfeeds page.  Afterall with the current Facebook privacy settings, if you have not disabled newsfeeds for a particular friend or friends, you see everything they do with these two components, from status updates to new pictures or album uploads/updates, pictures they like, comments they make, new life events and virtually everything they do. This makes the need to check profiles of your friends less likely unless there is a major reason but if you still insist on knowing then here is the deal.

IS IT POSSIBLE REALLY?

Currently, there is no technology or Facebook Application that can tell you who checked out your profile as far as I know. There is one Application though called Online People that seemingly shows something but even that is only those who viewed your profile within the Application and they may presumably have gone on to check your Facebook profile as well. How Facebook Algorithm works is only known to them and for reasons best known to them as well. However, I wish to speak about a particular process which is viral on YouTube that claims to have a solution to the “who viewed your Facebook profile” topic.  Have you come across a tutorial like this? 

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If you haven’t, just go to YouTube and search the topic. “How to know who viewed your FaceBook Profile” and many of such tutorials will pop up. Initially I was caught up in the craze too until I decided to put it to test and this is what I found.

1.      WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET:

When I first went through the motion to find out what this was all about, I became immediately suspicious when I checked the top ten on the list from the chat window (I don’t use Facebook chat live, I’d rather send messages offline). I realized that the list in my chat window followed the same order in the page source list. The one on top of my list was actually a cousin I communicated with many times within the last two days. It was same with everyone in my top ten chat window.

2.      THE TEST:

i)                    FIRST TWO WEEKS

Still doubt me? Well, I conducted another test to verify these claims. I created a dummy profile purposely for this experiment and used it for four weeks to test my claims before I deleted it (be warned though, this is not tolerated by Facebook so ensure you delete it after the experiment).  I then added this profile as a friend and ensured that for the next two weeks, I would check my real profile with the dummy for not less than 50 times a day.

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Guess what happened? Nothing changed!! My dummy profile remained at the position it was in both the page source experiment with its corresponding position in the chat window. Alternatively, you can ask a friend who is down on your list to check your profile everyday as many times they can without any form of communication at all (no status comments or likes, wall posts or likes and messages) between the two of you and the result would be the same.

ii)                  THIRD WEEK

On the third week I took it upon myself to strictly checkout pictures of my real profile with the dummy. I noticed that, my dummy profile moved up a bit in the chat window but never got half way up on the ladder much more get to the top.

iii)                FOURTH WEEK

On the fourth week, I conducted several correspondences back and forth between profiles (real and dummy). I posted on the walls, liked posts from newsfeeds (without going to the profile) and sent several messages from either profile to the other as many times as I could and BINGO my dummy profile moved to the top of both my page source list which  corresponded exactly in the same manner with the chat window list.

3.      YOU ARE INTRODUCED TO SOME FORM OF CODING CALLED SOURCE CODING :

What is source coding in computing?  Source Code is defined by dictionary.com as the original form of a computer program before it is converted into a machine-readable code. The process basically introduces you to what source coding looks like. What you see in the page source window is basically the coding for the arrangement of content on a particular web page that you have opened and this was created by the makers of FaceBook in building the total website. It is as simple as that.

OBSERVATIONS:  

I observed that for someone to really move to the top of your list, the gestures must be reciprocal. In the page source “initicialchatfriendslist”, you find only your friends as those who have viewed your profile. This is not logical considering the fact that it is possible for your profile to have been viewed most by someone who is not even on your friends list.  How come then that, they are not in the list?

CONCLUSION:

The conclusion for me is simple. There is currently no way of knowing who checked your profile the most on Facebook. What you see is just the coding for a particular web page you have opened. Google and Twitter Analytics provide you some insight of the impact you are making on social media with your business or social activities but even they do not provide who exactly viewed your profile. As someone venturing into online start-ups, I find these two very ‘friendly’ because their analysis gives me an insight into the path I need to take and focus on. For now, I do not know of any technology that allows you to know who viewed your profile most on FaceBook. If anyone out there knows of any such technology, they should feel free to share. Also feel free to share this post.