MIT Students Create App to Discover Gay Men on Facebook

App Scout ^ | 9/21/2009 | Brian Heater

[Question Liberal Authority]

Locating unidentified homosexual men on Facebook? There's an app for that. It was created by two students at MIT, who discovered that gay men tend to have more male Facebook friends of their own orientation.

The students, Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree, ran the program on 10 men who were gay, but didn't reveal that information on their profiles. The software predicted that all ten were gay.

The software apparent does not work for bisexual people or lesbians. No word on when it will be available for the iPhone.

[neodad]

LOL! The Gaydar app!

[krb]

I wonder what this sort of app does to “Don’t ask, don’t tell” situations.

[Uncle Miltie]

Does it work on Socialists?

[KarlInOhio]

Does it look at their facial features or for the number of posts they have about going antiquing and fabulous little bed-and-breakfasts?

[Disambiguator]

Gaydar Ping

[Overtaxed Patriot]

The muzzies will find that handy when Sharia Law is imposed in this country and they want to find all the gays, so that there are no gays in this country, the way there are no gays in Iran.

[NativeNewYorker]

Already invented.

[stephenjohnbanker]

I hope they enjoyed MIT. Time for 2 “apps” to Caltech?

[xjcsa]

It’s easy to write an app that predicts all 10 gay men are, in fact gay...the question is whether it also predicts a group of 10 straight men are also all gay.

[JRios1968]

[Morgana]

I was thinking the same thing.....

[PGR88]

Those frequenting the public toilets in harvard square is probably a good indicator also

No ipod or app needed for that

[Ghengis]

It scans their profiles. It catches the “Interested in: MEN” field 78% of the time.

[ari-freedom]

so much for MIT

RIP higher education

[Paladin2]

http://www.bmistree.com/

Education

* Graduated from Lakeside High School, 2003.

* Graduated from MIT in 2007 with a B.S. in EECS.

* Graduated from MIT in 2008 with a M.Eng in EECS.

* Getting Ph.D in Electrical Engineering at Stanford.

behram | interesting | projects | pictures | contact

Someone looking for "friends"?

[Gay State Conservative]

Does it look at their facial features or for the number of posts they have about going antiquing and fabulous little bed-and-breakfasts?

Yes,it does all that *and* counts the number of times the word "wonderful" is used as well as the number of references to Judy Garland.

[Paladin2]

"by Gay State Conservative"

I'm guessing you should know? ;-)

[Question Liberal Authority]

counts the number of times the word "wonderful" is used as well as the number of references to Judy Garland.

CRAP! I just mentioned "The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz" on my wall last week!

What I need are some Facebook Friends who will act as a 'beard' and jam the gaydar. Is there an app to help me find them?

[longtermmemmory]

If Time magazine says we are ALL socialists now...

The fashionistas TRIED to push metrosexuals as “homosexual lite”...(frutiness without the sexual act)

So is this just another idiotic way to dilute the issue of normal by say all are abnormal?

[HiTech RedNeck]

gay men tend to have more male Facebook friends of their own orientation

But, if "their own orientation" is the thing being divined, it can't also be part of the formula for determining it. Facebook doesn't have an option for "orientation: same as Mike's", does it?

[Red Badger]

They’ve got waaaay too much time on their hands.....among other things.........

[reagan_fanatic]

[thecraw]

...gay men tend to have more male Facebook friends of their own orientation

Or list "Project Runway" as their favorite TV show...

[Gay State Conservative]

"by Gay State Conservative"..I'm guessing you should know? ;-)

My profile page explains my screen name.