Blog Lady's Internet Guide

Facebook is about connecting with people you know or have known.  Just as soon as you get a Facebook account, you can start looking for friends at the site.  You can also do this search at any other time you are a member of the social network.

Perhaps the quickest way to find people on Facebook is to use their email addresses.  Unlike with names, jobs and locations, no two people have the same email address.  Or at least, they aren’t supposed to.  So if you find a match, it has to be the right one.  Another reason why you might prefer to look up someone by email is that people use email addresses to register for accounts, all the time.  Can you count the number of times you’ve had to sign up with your email and a password to gain access to a website?  Facebook is no different.

Of course, you would have to know somebody’s email address. That’s unlikely if you’re searching for old school mates or long-lost relatives. Using email to find people on Facebook is best for looking for friends you’ve corresponded with in recent times.  To find friends or family from way back, you’d need to resort to other means, such as searching by school or employer.

Figure 1. Search for people you know on Facebook.

To search for friends based on their email addresses, you can import your contacts from a Web-based email or an email client.  Facebook won’t store the password to your Web mail, but it will gather the information in your account to find people you know.

When you import contacts from an email account, Facebook automatically adds that email to your list of associated email addresses.  You can remove it later if you don’t want it there.  For instance, you may have one primary account where most of your contacts are stored, and a secondary one for use with Facebook. You can temporarily add the primary to your Facebook account just to search for friends, and then remove it.

How to Use Facebook Friend Finder to Import Contacts

Before you do this, understand that you will be transmitting sensitive information over to Facebook when you do this.  Use only a secure connection.

Figure 2. When you find friends, you can send friend requests.

1.  Log in to Facebook.
2. Click Find Friends on the toolbar on the top right of the page.
3. Look up your email service provider in the list and click Find Friends next to it. (Or if you want to import contacts from an email program click Other Tools and click Upload Contacts.  Follow the directions.)
4. Enter your email address and click Find Friends.
5. When prompted, confirm that you allow the email service provider to connect to Facebook and share your information.
6. If Facebook finds a match, it will tell you next.  Select the persons you want to connect with and click Add Friends to send a friend request to each person.  Otherwise click Skip.
7. Facebook will now offer to invite friends that it was unable to match with any accounts. Select names and click Send Invites to invite those people to join Facebook. Or click Skip.

Facebook will send friend requests to everyone you chose to add as a friend.  If they accept your request, you will become officially “friends” at the site and will be able to connect, view each other’s profile and share stories.  The site will send invitations to join Facebook to everyone you chose as well; they decide if they will sign up or not.

How to Remove an Email Address from Your Facebook Account

As I said above,any email address you search with Friend Finder gets added to your account.  But you might not need or want it there.  To remove the email address that Facebook just searched from your account:

1. Click the down arrow next to Home on the toolbar.
2. Click Account Settings.
3. Click edit next to your primary email address.
4. Click Remove next to the recently added email to drop it from the list.
5. To finalize this action, type your Facebook password and click Save Changes.

Figure 3. You can remove an email address from your Facebook account.

I assume that if you remove an email address this way, Facebook will no longer store your contacts in its system.

Now you know how to find friends by email, you’ll want to make sure they can find you too.  Here’s how you can make a Facebook profile so others know who you are.

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Filed under: Facebook | Tagged: facebook email address, facebook friends