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Facebook recently released Graph Search, a personalized searching tool for Facebook users. While Google was almost penalized for their social searching options, it seemed to very effective and enjoyed by Google searchers. Bing also implemented personal results. These personalized results not only took into account a user’s interest, they also displayed what a searcher’s friends enjoyed. If what they say in The Social Network is true, then perhaps Mark simply couldn’t resist working off of some else’s idea.
Facebook takes their search tool a step further by solely focusing on personalized search, and making the world wide web a simple option at the bottom of the results.
It is likely that in the coming years, Facebook will integrate world wide web results into their search results, thus giving them the opportunity to take the throne as the most popular search engine.
With every ‘like’ counting as a page view, we’ll probably hear Mark Zuckerberg say something about Graph Search receiving more usage than Google, Bing and other popular searching tools. Remember, Mark made a similar announcement, including likes, pokes, picture views, and more for their page view statistics.
Whether or not they defeat Google, Facebook’s Graph Search is actually a pretty unique tool. Instead of searching for a friend, and going to check out their photos, you can use the new searching tool to find those photos in an easier fashion. For example, instead of trying to find a friend’s ‘Venezuela’ photo album, I could find all of my friends’ photos taken in Venezuela. This is done with a simple search of ‘Photos of my friends in Venezuela’.
Along with that, you can easily find photos and information on massive communities simply by typing a phrase. This is definitely an improvement, considering the fact that I could hardly find people from my school - even when searching for my school’s network.
Something that should be noted is the placement of Graph Search. The toolbar for searching is on the left, where the logo and menu were previously placed. I personally have found myself clicking the search bar, simply out of habit. It is very frustrating, but has led me to use Graph Search. With that occurring, I can only congratulate the Facebook team for their efficient use of researching user habits and feature placement.
If you’re still confused about Graph Search, just go to Facebook and take the two minute tour that they provide to everyone.
Written By Will Passmore