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Facebook is now an essential unifying force in many people’s social lives — it helps friends arrange events, wish each other “happy birthday,” solidify communities and social bonds, and share recent memories with images.

All of that has been always possible by other, less convenient means, but Facebook helps us do one thing that’s unique to our time: Get daily updates on the lives of friends all over the world, in different walks of life.

In a way, that’s what the service originally was. Its name and college origins conjure images of a yearbook, intended not to keep up on what’s new but to act as a record of past relationships, associations and accomplishments. Facebook hasn’t forgotten that, so it provides tools for reconnecting with friends from your past — past schools, past jobs and even past e-mail exchanges.

Here’s a list of ways to find long lost friends on Facebook.

Find Friends You E-mail

Look in Facebook’s right navigation panel and you’ll see an area labeled “Get Connected.” It’s easy to miss, but this is where you’ll start when looking for old friends. Click “Find your friends” underneath “Who’s on Facebook?” and you’ll be taken to the “Find people you know on Facebook” portal.

The first option you’ll see is “Find people you e-mail.” Just type in your e-mail address here, and if your e-mail service is a popular one (like Gmail or Yahoo), a window will pop up that will log into your account and import all your contacts.

You’ll get a list of people you’ve e-mailed who have registered on Facebook using the e-mail address from your contact list. Check the ones you know and click “Add as Friends” once you’ve found all the folks you want.

Follow Facebook’s Recommendations

Head back to that first page and look further down the options, below the e-mail one, and you’ll see a collage of profile pictures and names under the header “Suggestions.” These are people Facebook’s computers think you might know based on factors like whether or not you have lots of mutual friends.

If you don’t know someone on the list, click the “X” by that person’s name to make him or her disappear, and he or she will be replaced by a new possibility. If you do know the next one one, just click “Add as friend” and you’re set.

Find Friends By Name or E-mail Address

In the bottom left of the “Find people you know on Facebook” page, you’ll see a subsection labeled “search for people.” There’s a simple search field where you can type in a name or e-mail address. Facebook will look for any users with that name or e-mail address, then give you the option of adding whoever it finds as a friend.

Find Former or Current Classmates or Co-workers

When you don’t know your former contact’s e-mail address or if his or her name is so common that you can’t find him or her in the search, you can search based on school or workplace. You can only do this for schools or workplaces you’ve attended. Click on any of the links below the name and e-mail search field (such as “Find former college classmates”) to navigate to another friend-finding page.

You can type in the school name or the class year, then (optionally) a name to find a classmate. Alternatively, you can search by company and name to find co-workers and colleagues.

Find Friends You IM

Step back to the main portal and look in the bottom right corner to find the IM option. It works just like the e-mail one, except that you have to select a service. For example, click on AOL Instant Messenger and type in your screen name and password to import all your AIM contacts. If your AIM buddies have Facebook accounts that list their screen names, they’ll appear in the results and you’ll be able to add them.

Use Facebook Search

If none of the above options helped you find the person you’re looking for, you can really get your hands dirty by using Facebook’s more general search feature. The search field is always at the top of every Facebook page.

Type in a name, but don’t hit enter or return yet because you might get taken straight to a specific profile or page. Instead, click “See More Results…” at the bottom of the drop-down list that appears.

In the left navigation menu (the one that says “All Results,” “People,” etc.), click “People.” Now you can narrow your search by typing in location, school or workplace in addition to name.

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Tags: facebook, how to, social networking