diff --git a/include/contact_widgets.php b/include/contact_widgets.php
index cfe27c5c9b..e0fe4271a4 100644
--- a/include/contact_widgets.php
+++ b/include/contact_widgets.php
@@ -146,11 +146,18 @@ function common_friends_visitor_widget($profile_uid) {
 		$cid = local_user();
 	else {
 		if(get_my_url()) {
-			$r = q("select id from gcontact where nurl = '%s' limit 1",
+			$r = q("select id from contact where nurl = '%s' and uid = %d limit 1",
 				dbesc(normalise_link(get_my_url()))
 			);
 			if(count($r))
-				$zcid = $r[0]['id'];
+				$cid = $r[0]['id'];
+			else {
+				$r = q("select id from gcontact where nurl = '%s' limit 1",
+					dbesc(normalise_link(get_my_url()))
+				);
+				if(count($r))
+					$zcid = $r[0]['id'];
+			}
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -167,9 +174,9 @@ function common_friends_visitor_widget($profile_uid) {
 		return;
 
 	if($cid)
-		$r = common_friends($profile_uid,$cid,5);
+		$r = common_friends($profile_uid,$cid,5,true);
 	else
-		$r = common_friends_zcid($profile_uid,$zcid);
+		$r = common_friends_zcid($profile_uid,$zcid,5,true);
 
 	return replace_macros(get_markup_template('remote_friends_common.tpl'), array(
 		'$desc' =>  sprintf( tt("%d friend in common", "%d friends in common", $t), $t),
diff --git a/include/socgraph.php b/include/socgraph.php
index a08d580741..35d754cadc 100644
--- a/include/socgraph.php
+++ b/include/socgraph.php
@@ -182,13 +182,18 @@ function count_common_friends($uid,$cid) {
 }
 
 
-function common_friends($uid,$cid,$limit=9999) {
+function common_friends($uid,$cid,$limit=9999,$shuffle = false) {
+
+	if($shuffle)
+		$sql_extra = " order by rand() ";
+	else
+		$sql_extra = " order by `gcontact`.`name` asc "; 
 
 	$r = q("SELECT `gcontact`.* 
 		FROM `glink` left join `gcontact` on `glink`.`gcid` = `gcontact`.`id`
 		where `glink`.`cid` = %d and `glink`.`uid` = %d
 		and `gcontact`.`nurl` in (select nurl from contact where uid = %d and self = 0 and id != %d ) 
-		order by `gcontact`.`name` asc limit 0, %d",
+		sql_extra limit 0, %d",
 		intval($cid),
 		intval($uid),
 		intval($uid),
@@ -217,13 +222,18 @@ function count_common_friends_zcid($uid,$zcid) {
 
 }
 
-function common_friends_zcid($uid,$zcid,$limit = 6) {
+function common_friends_zcid($uid,$zcid,$limit = 9999,$shuffle) {
+
+	if($shuffle)
+		$sql_extra = " order by rand() ";
+	else
+		$sql_extra = " order by `gcontact`.`name` asc "; 
 
 	$r = q("SELECT `gcontact`.* 
 		FROM `glink` left join `gcontact` on `glink`.`gcid` = `gcontact`.`id`
 		where `glink`.`zcid` = %d
 		and `gcontact`.`nurl` in (select nurl from contact where uid = %d and self = 0 ) 
-		order by `gcontact`.`name` asc limit 0, %d",
+		$sql_extra limit 0, %d",
 		intval($zcid),
 		intval($uid),
 		intval($limit)