Facebook 'Pick Five' Lists: The Hottest and the Wildest

As Facebook has rocketed to its current position as the most popular social networking destination on the Web, some people have wondered whether there would be enough things for all of those millions of users to do once they arrived. That remains to be seen over the long term.

But today, Facebook users are sharing more than 1 billion pieces of content (Web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) each week, and one of the most popular is the Pick Five list from Facebook app developer LivingSocial. LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy says that Facebook users created some 600 types of Pick Fives, while only "a couple dozen" were created by LivingSocial's 17-person staff in Washington, D.C.

If you visit Facebook regularly, you've probably filled out at least one of these Top Five lists. I have--they're hard to resist. The reason I like LivingSocial's Pick Fives such as "Five Albums That Have Shaped Me" is because they provide a structured way for Facebookers to express to each other who they are and what they're all about. Nevertheless, I suspect that it's more fun to fill out your own list than to look at other people's lists.

After meeting the LivingSocial people, we decided to find out which five Pick Five lists Facebook users are most inclined to fill out. We also wondered which individual choices made those top five Pick Fives most frequently. So we found out.

The Pick Five lists come in a multitude of categories, such as "sports" and "technology." Many of the Pick Fives focus on celebrities, the most popular category chosen by the Facebook community. After celebrity Pick Fives (30 million lists created), you have (by order of popularity) Movies (12.3 million lists), TV shows (9 million lists) and Pro Sports Teams (7.8 million lists).

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