Facebook Feature: People You May Know
Might as well be called something like, “People you befriended then removed because they were jerks” or “People you know but aren’t friends with” or “Jerks who are friends with many of your friends.”
The algorithm is probably pretty simple. Facebook probably just grabs people who are not your friends but share a large number of friends with you. I imagine they aren’t doing any kind of interesting (mathwise) stuff like weighing friends with low degree higher and friends with high degree lower. That would mean that friends who are friend whores count less toward your “People you might know” score than friends who have very few friends.
And that’s why Facebook needs employees well versed in network analysis and graph exploration!
*HINT HINT*
Also, I’d really like to see a “DO NOT WANT” button for the douchebags who keep on showing up in my list of people I may know. Just because I may know them doesn’t mean I want to be “friends” with them, FB.