SMART NEWS

This Site Shows You Every Face on Facebook

There are over a billion people with Facebook accounts, and this site lets you see all of their profile pictures at once

Rose Eveleth

Contributor

October 1, 2013

There are over a billion people with Facebook accounts, and this site lets you see all of their profile pictures at once. Zoom out, and the Faces of Facebook is a mash of tiny dots. But zoom in, and the wall of color turns into a grid of faces in the order they joined Facebook. At the top left, Mark Zuckerberg. At the bottom right, the most recent person to sign up, a spot that changes constantly.

Image: The Faces of Facebook

The project was created by Natalie Rojas, a creative technologist, who notes in the information blurb on the project’s site that they don’t store any of the images or information about you. If you connect the site with your own Facebook profile, you can see where you fall on the grid and who joined just before and just after you did. It’s a way, Rojas explains, to get a broad look at all sorts of people you’ll never meet. She explains:

Because there we are, all mixed up: large families, women wearing burkas, many Leo Messis, people supporting same-sex marriages or r4bia, Chihuahuas, Indian Gods, tourists pushing the leaning Tower of Pisa, selfies, newborns, Ferraris, studio black and white portraits, a lot of weddings but zero divorces, ID photos, faces framed in hearts, best friends, manga characters, politic logos, deep looks, love messages, eyes, memes, smiles, sweet grandparents and some not-yet-censured pictures.