External Facebook links to invite friends to connect?

I have a nice external URL for my friends who want to find me and hopefully connect in MySpace and LinkedIn, but Facebook seems like a world unto itself. Is there some sort of URL I can use to get the same result in Facebook?

Dave's Answer:

One of the popular phrases that you'll hear a lot in Web 2.0 conferences is "walled garden" and in many ways Facebook exemplifies the concept: a terrific online world with many capabilities and engaging features that's isolated and a world unto itself. It's because of their walled garden philosophy that it's so darn hard to "break in" to Facebook.

One factor is that there are no publicly accessible profiles unlike MySpace or LinkedIn, but even then, it's frustrating and difficult to figure out how to point people to your Facebook profile even if they're already part of the Facebook online community.

I thought it would be interesting to try and crack this nut, so I sent an invitation to join Facebook and connect with me to a variety of friends. The URLs in their messages should offer up a clue as to how an external link could work, right? Here's what we gleaned:

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=500501552&k=45AY35QX4WT13JLHTKX4&r&v=2
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=500501552&k=3D45GYZ26YP5T12BDIS1X4&r&v=2
http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=500501552&k=34E5ZZ6336T12CMIU1Z5&r&v=2

Apparently, the "k=" value is somehow tied to the email address of the recipient, since they're all different, while the "i=" value (my Facebook member number) and the "v=" values are the same.

Hmmm.... so what happens if you just "forget" that "k=" value?

http://www.facebook.com/p.php?i=500501552&r&v=2

You get to sign up for Facebook, that's what happens. Once you've done that, or if you're already signed in to Facebook, however, you find that it's an invalid link. Facebook doesn't want us to hack its URLs in this fashion!

What you should apparently use instead, however, is the following:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500501552

Click on it to see what happens.

Now, replace my ID (500501552) with your own Facebook ID (which you can quickly glean by grabbing the URL of your picture. Mine, for example, is http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profile&id=500501552, which gives me my own ID without having to email an invitation to myself!) and you should be good to go.

Is it a great solution compared to the nice custom URLs from LinkedIn and from MySpace? No. But if we're stuck in a walled garden, at least it's something...

Note: if someone else has figured out a better strategy for having an external Facebook link please do add a note here so we can all benefit from your efforts!

Categorized: Facebook Help (Article 7695, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: facebook, hacking, linkedin, myspace, social networking
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Comments

At the bottom of your profile, there is a link: "Create a profile badge" which, just like Linked In, creates an image (with a piece of code) to put on your website as a link to your profile. It can be dynamic or not.

Posted by: Aurelie at November 16, 2007 11:34 AM

i don't have a coment at this time, i'm just trying this out.

Posted by: pat buckingham at May 10, 2008 12:04 AM

i don't have a comment at this time.

Posted by: pat buckingham at May 10, 2008 12:24 AM

I will like to be a facebook member

Posted by: Kemmy at July 1, 2008 9:26 AM

Great explaining - I really appreciate that you took the time to share this with us readers!

Posted by: Kaitlin at August 17, 2008 10:03 PM

i will like to be a facebook member

Posted by: anwanga at November 5, 2008 6:54 AM

Dave thanks for working this out for us.

Posted by: Vargas at November 15, 2008 11:01 PM

it give a visitor to your site the ablity to ADD you to their FACEBOOK ... us this link http://www.facebook.com/addfriend.php?id=**********

********** = your id number as David expand above. ei. If your id is 2323232 than the link would be http://www.facebook.com/addfriend.php?id=2323232

Posted by: Vargas at November 15, 2008 11:52 PM

i would like to join facebook

Posted by: timothy wynne at November 23, 2008 4:33 PM

iwouldto join facebook to meet friends

Posted by: sam at December 11, 2008 1:28 PM

I would like to join face book so as to chart and send pictures to my friends.

Posted by: damaris moragwa ongubo at February 3, 2009 5:53 AM

Hi.
I would know if there is a way to receive a Facebook user uid if that user isn't my friend.
Thanks in advance

Posted by: alex at March 12, 2009 8:29 AM

Thanks this works perfectly!!!

Posted by: georgie at April 7, 2009 6:36 PM

Doesn't work for me. When I get my "ID" from my picture it's not a 9-char id. And, when I use it in the URL, it takes me to a login screen??

Where do I find the 90char id #?

Posted by: Tom Sparks at August 2, 2009 2:26 PM

i was invited to join facebook and was asked for a password and it was never accepted. why ??????

Posted by: eric hitter at August 21, 2009 10:03 AM

How could you add someone to your Mafia wars with no friend requests needed? Is there a link you could use?

Posted by: JT at September 11, 2009 12:13 PM

very intelligent

Posted by: shunaid at September 14, 2009 12:37 PM

Thank you for this post - even now, people like me find this - worked perfectly.

Posted by: Steve at September 26, 2009 4:41 PM

to join

Posted by: sunil at October 11, 2009 10:19 AM

Thanks

Posted by: Bob Marty at November 28, 2009 2:30 PM

dakaj

Posted by: granit at December 13, 2009 2:42 AM

Your great idea seems to work fine for individuals such as mine (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= 158412439421) but doesn't seem to work for group sites.
Thanks, Phil

Posted by: Phil Reagan at February 12, 2010 4:46 PM

Thanks do much.....after an hour of searching around fb I gave up and looked to google for the answers. This must be a common issue....why fb make it hard is my question? But a great thanks here for such a good answer which has saved us all time.

Cheers
Cheers
Cheers
Matt

Posted by: Matt at March 18, 2010 7:29 PM

Thais élegal!!!

Posted by: priscila at March 26, 2010 12:15 PM

It IS totally different copying/pasting links from FB vs. LI. "Walled Garden." I hadn't heard that before - I heard it here first. :-D Thanks for the post as I learned a few good things.

Posted by: Mary at August 4, 2010 1:10 PM

This is awesome. On every order confirmation email I put my links to my blog, videos and I couldn't figure out the Facebook thing. It totally works.
Thank you!

Posted by: Monique at September 1, 2010 7:56 AM

That's exactly the information I was looking for.
So simple. To let people add me as a friend.
Thank You.

Posted by: Eliezer at March 2, 2011 9:40 AM

How do I ask to join a facebook page?

Posted by: Susan at August 9, 2011 6:37 PM

I dont know how to invite a friend

Posted by: Kathy at February 3, 2012 12:29 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!