Facebook takes on Google with 'Graph Search' beta
updated 01:07 pm EST, Tue January 15, 2013
Feature searches within profiles
Facebook has gathered members of the media at its Menlo Park headquarters, where CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the new Graph Search feature. The new search tool is geared for users, enabling the entire social network to be used as a database for search queries.
Zuckerberg suggests the company has worked to maintain privacy, including results only from publicly posted content or items shared privately with the searcher. Results are ranked by closest contacts, while also including content posted by mutual friends or other branches in the social network.
"People, photos, places and interests" form the foundation of the search tool, Zuckerberg says. Examples of potential queries include "music my friends like; restaurants in Chicago;" or "photos of my friends in 2009."
A "refine this search" button enables users to narrow down the results, focusing on specific locations, types of content, or results visited by specific friends. As another example, someone can look for "friends of friends who are single men in San Francisco" to start a dating search, and at "who are from India" to further refine the search.
Users must sign up to participate in the beta program.
