Back to the roots, Facebook’s Graph Search it is.
Facebook as it was first launched, was used by people to browse and learn about people and end up making new connections. Here it is back again rediscovering its roots through search again, this time its called “Graph Search”.
What is Facebook graph Search?
Graph Search is a way for you to search and find people, photos, places and interests that are relevant to your search and your relationship with your friends on Facebook.
- Graph search is not same as the web search. It is mainly the search for content on Facebook which will give unique search results for each one depending on strength of relationship and connections.
- It’s in beta and available to small number of Facebook users in US. However, if you like to get it you can register to the waiting lists here
Why use Graph Search?
It’s easy and better because you don’t have to search individual friend’s profiles for information. You can get all the results for your search on latest happenings with your connections in one place.
- You can search for photos, places, interests and people.
- You can easily discover new people with similar interests and make new connections.
- You can find places, restaurants and other local attractions based on your friends’ feeds, likes and shares including information from their history.
- you can even get all the results about your friends’ favorite music bands, books or movies.
- As an example, according to this report, you could even use this new feature for dating or recruiting as well.
- For an average user this might not be a great hit, but businesses and leaders could definitely make use of it.
How is graph search different from web search?
Graph search was first rumored to be a competition to the king of internet the Google. But stop believing such rumors, it’s a completely different thing and in no way similar to the existing web search. Here are few things that make graph search different from web search.
Web search:
- Keywords oriented
- Provides links that could contain answers for your search
- Mostly information that is available to the public on the web
Graph search:
- You combine phrases and not keywords
- You are provided with results rather than links
- It is more private and you will be able to see the results in your search that you are able to see elsewhere on Facebook
Could this feature have any disadvantages?
As written on Gizmodo, you have every chance of being seen for all the wrong reasons on Facebook! All thanks to graph search.
- You may have liked pages, status or photos in the past that may become the cause for embarrassment today on being seen on somebody’s search results under the wrong search phrases. Your likes may be due to the awesome content of the page or status but the literal meaning of them could ruin your Facebook reputation especially among your friends if you were ever caught for wrong search!
- Your privacy may be at stake! May be, because the for graph search is not clear and at present its just waggly defined. Your private life on Facebook could be public in a moment of time if you do not pay close attention to what you share or like on Facebook and with whom? As a matter of fact, you may now want to look back into your profile for the history so you do not repent for it later.
- Above all, the real benefits of this graph search itself is questionable? Why do you want to search this extensively and keep a watch on the database of friends in the first place? Is this whole thing of graph search required? An extensive research has been articulated on Techcrunch about why graph search is a miss? Only time and Mark Zuckarberg can answer I guess!
On the other hand, as a user, we may have to work hard for this graph search to become hit which is now far away from the success it claims to have one day. We may have to become more active check-in often, keep liking and updating status and also not just add photos but meticulously tag them to be found on search results (only if you like it to happen!).
The attempt of adding this feature in to encourage users to get more active or should I say proactive on this social networking site. It is an attempt to encourage people to grow their friends circle and add more and more friends quickly as the stats show the drop in expanding number of friends on an average which is crucial for Facebook’s growth in future.
Do you think graph search is really an essential user tool?
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