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Creative Ramblings > Facebook > An introduction to Facebook’s new Graph Search

An introduction to Facebook’s new Graph Search

16 Jan, 2013 Facebook News Permalink
Facebook Graph Search

Photo credit: Facebook

Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg introduced Graph Search. As the whole social media world was buzzing with the news, I decided to wait until everything had calmed down a bit to conduct some research and see what people had to say about it.

In this article, I will give you a general idea of what Graph Search is, with links to articles that you might be interested in checking out.

Something very different from regular (web) search:

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.

(Source: Facebook Newsroom)

Graph Search helps you find relevant information (people, photos, places, and interests) more easily and conveniently within Facebook. It follows your current privacy settings, which means that:

  • You can only search for what  has been shared with you
  • People will only be able to access your public content and the content that you have shared with them

Examples of queries

  • “friends who live in my city”
  • “software engineers who live in San Francisco and like skiing”
  • “photos of my friends before 1999″
  • “restaurants in San Francisco”
  • “cities visited by my family”
  • “languages my friends speak”
  • “books read by CEOs”
Facebook Graph Search

Photo credit: Facebook

If you cannot find what you are looking for, Bing will take over.

Now when you do a web search on Facebook, the new search results page features a two-column layout with Bing-powered web results appearing on the left-hand side overlaid with social information from Facebook including how many people like a given result. On the right hand side, you will see content from Facebook Pages and apps that are related to your search.

(Source: Bing Search Blog)

If you have a Facebook Fan Page, make sure your page is complete and up to date:

  • The name, category, vanity URL, and information you share in the “About” section all help people find your business and should be shared on Facebook.

  • If you have a location or a local place Page, update your address to make sure you can appear as a result when someone is searching for a specific location.

  • Focus on attracting the right fans to your Page and on giving your fans a reason to interact with your content on an ongoing basis.

(Source: Facebook Studio)

Graph Search is in beta right now and only available in English and to a limited number of users. Interested in trying it? Sign up and you will be put on the waiting list.

Further reading

What are your thoughts on Facebook Graph Search? Could it be a Google killer?

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Creative Commons License
This article by Cendrine Marrouat is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

About The Author

Cendrine Marrouat is a journalist, blogger, content curator, author, and workshop facilitator located in Canada. She is the founder of two social media blogs: Social Media Slant and Creative Ramblings. On March 6, 2012, she released The Little Big eBook on Blogging: 40 Traffic Generation Tips, a comprehensive resource that provides bloggers of all levels with essential information and precise guidance to attract quality traffic to their blogs. She is currently working on an eBook on social media strategies that should be released before the end of 2013.
  • http://travelwisconsin.us/ Liane Markus

    I heard about this new Facebook Graph Search and I find it to be very interesting. Perhaps, these are some of the reasons why many people enjoy using Facebook because of the benefits and excitements that Facebook has.

  • http://www.bidadarivillasubudbali.com/ Purnima

    Illuminating share Cendrine .
    I completely agree that Face Book Graph Search has a huge potential. It can so well infer where all one has traveled ,what one likes etc which is a cool feature . This share has helped me gain insight about it in a simplified manner .

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Glad it helped!

  • http://www.lifestyleportablebuildings.com.au/ Aayna

    Hey Cendrine,
    Facebook graph search is just amazing. I used it yesterday only, and I am just going gaga over it. Loved it!! Thanks for providing more information about it. This information is of great importance.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      You got your invitation to test Graph Search? I didn’t even get one yet, congratulations!

  • http://www.simonsezit.com/courses/microsoft/learn-microsoft-excel-2013-training-tutorials/com/unique-office-supplies/ Fatima

    Facebook graph search is indeed helpful but it may not work where users have set higher privacy levels. Thanks for sharing.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Actually, Fatima, the big issue right now is the fact that it seems to reveal information that you may not want others to see and had thought would be kept private because of your settings. So, I would wait and see.