DailyTech - Facebook Releases Beta of "Graph Search"

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Internet Facebook Releases Beta of "Graph Search"
Tiffany Kaiser - January 15, 2013 3:00 PM

18 comment(s) - last by StevoLincolnit.. on Jan 21 at 11:10 AM

Graph Search shows "Photos of my friends before 1999" (Source: Facebook)

Graph Search is a search engine that grabs information off of Facebook instead of the whole World Wide Web

Facebook revealed a new social search feature called "Graph Search" today, which will provide any public information users ask of regarding others on the social network.

Graph Search, which is still in beta, is a search engine that grabs information off of Facebook instead of the whole World Wide Web. For instance, a user can type "Friends who live in my city," and Graph Search will provide photos and profiles of friends that live in that user's city. Another example is typing "Photos of my friends before 1999," and a collage of photos of friends before 1999 will appear.

The new feature is separated into four categories: People, photos, places and interests. Users can search under any of these categories to find others and information from or about others.

"Graph Search and web search are very different," said Facebook's Tom Stocky and Lars Rasmussen in a blog post. "Web search is designed to take a set of keywords (for example: “hip hop”) and provide the best possible results that match those keywords. With Graph Search you combine phrases (for example: "my friends in New York who like Jay-Z") to get that set of people, places, photos or other content that's been shared on Facebook. We believe they have very different uses."

When announcing the new feature today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was careful to note that users can only search information that is available to them. If something was kept private from them, they cannot search and find it.

For now, Graph Search is only offered in English and will present itself as a larger search bar at the top of each page. To get a glimpse of the beta, go here.

As for Facebook's Web searches, the social network announced that it will use Bing.

Source: Facebook

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RE: Will never use it

By paydirt on 1/16/2013 7:30:21 AM , Rating: 2

LOL. I'm not deactivated to be hip (responding to below). I don't have much need for facebook. Most of my socialization is thru work, family, church, gaming friends, close friends... Most communication is thru text or email for setting up gatherings. I don't have a great need for new friends. If I want to catch up with someone, I either call them or hang out with them.

Most of what is on Facebook is noise. There is a ton of noise in the media (face it, 90% of the news does not pertain to you). That's why I like DailyTech; it is curated and not some 90%+ useless stream like Engadget. The more media (tv, games, social media, etc) you consume, the more it consumes you and in the process you can lose yourself. I would know, I tend to bounce from one media addiction to another. Must... Pull... Away...

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RE: Will never use it

By safcman84 on 1/16/2013 8:20:39 AM , Rating: 3

A lot is noise, and I block most of it.

However, it is very useful for me, as I have friends who live in different countries so it isn't as simple as just jumping in a car and heading over to see them.

If you have friends in NY, but live in LA facebook allows you to keep upto date with whats going on. YOu can block certain kinds of posts (like the mundane "i ate an apple")

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RE: Will never use it

By xti on 1/17/2013 11:38:56 AM , Rating: 2

so you dont have a single family member that doesnt live close to you? You didnt have any friends who moved to another city to attend a college or a great job opportunity?

You dont have enough people in your life that its hard to keep up with everyone thoroughly on a daily basis simply because there arent enough hours in the day?

incoming quantity vs quality nonsense....

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RE: Will never use it

By StevoLincolnite on 1/21/2013 11:10:09 AM , Rating: 2

I live in a small town in a relatively un-populated country.

So the answers to those questions is a "No", even if they did, it's no harder to pick up a phone or do a Skype Video call or something. Do we really need to know what people have had for lunch?

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