Facebook has
so many users -- more
than a billion, or roughly
the population of India
-- that squeezing them
all into one Web page
seems almost
impossible.
And yet someone has
done just that.
A new project, "The
Faces of Facebook," app.thefacesoffacebook.com/ collects more than 1.27 billion Facebook profile photos on one site, arranged in chronological order according to when
the person joined the
social network. Users
can sign in via Facebook
to pinpoint their photo
on the page and see
where they show up in
relation to their friends.
At first glance, the site
looks like colorful,
pixelated white noise.
But users can zoom in
to see individual photos
and then scroll around
or click on a photo to
visit that person's
Facebook page. (Be
warned, however: the
page is experiencing
heavy traffic and can be
slow and buggy.)
The site launched last
week and was built by
Natalia Rojas, a self-
described "creative
technologist" in
Barcelona, Spain.
"I was playing around
with Facebook API, and
I discovered that there
is a way to access
everyone's public
information with a very
simple (but not obvious)
algorithm," she said in
an e-mail to CNN. "At
that time, I thought I
could do something
beautiful/interesting
with that, like showing
them all together. Then
I started to write the
code to achieve it."
Rojas said she is not
breaking Facebook
privacy rules because
she is not storing
anyone's name, photo
or private information --
just linking out to public
Facebook profiles. She
also said she hasn't
heard from the social
network, which she
thinks is good news
because "I was a bit
worried about things
like using their name in
the URL."
Facebook did not repond
to CNN's request for
comment.
Rojas said it took her a
year and a half to code
the site. The hardest
part, she said, was
stripping out the
default silhouette
images that appear on
some inactive Facebook
profiles.
Asked about her hopes
for the project, Rojas
said she was inspired
by the idea that each
Facebook profile photo
is an example of that
person's best self, and
that millions of those
images together
combine to present a
positive, universal
message.
"There is a mix of
people from all over the
world. And somehow
we are all telling our
friends: 'Look, this is
me, when I like myself.'
Feeling happy, being
creative, looking good,
being passionate about
something, proud of
something, enjoying the
life," she said.
"So I think, why don't
we try to BE our
Facebook profile
picture? Even if life is
difficult some times,
there is always a way
for us to be what we
want to be: happy.".

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/tech/social-media/faces-facebook-site/index.html?sr=fb100112facebookfaces1030a