Social networks that hand out "You Might Like" suggestions, like Facebook and LinkedIn, find these new buddies based on the friend-of-a-friend method -- the assumption that because you know me (and presumably like me) you'll know and like my friends, too.

While these predictions can be pretty accurate, researchers discovered that when people frequent the same places, they end up friending one another there, "accounting for 30 percent of new social links," Salvatore Scellato, one of the Cambridge University researchers, told .

The study used information from , one of the first social networking services to use to "check-in" to businesses. These hangout locations were given weighted value based on how conducive the environment was to social interaction, or "place entropy," as Scellato described it.

For instance, an airport or a high-traffic bus stop wouldn't score huge points, but a college-town Laundromat or cozy bar (or a combination of those two -- the very definition of awesome) would.

Discovering friends through geolocation is the only way to deftly sift through the crowded party and find new friends -- friends that you could actually hang out with in real life, too.