Facebook unveils search tool
Network query could be challenge to Google
MENLO PARK, Calif. – In a potential challenge to much larger rival Google Inc., Facebook Inc. said Tuesday that it’s introducing new search tools that will let its 1 billion users scour the social network for information about people, photos, places and other interests.
The new “Graph Search” will show only information that has been posted publicly or shared with the person who is doing the search, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who called the new service “one of the coolest things we’ve done in a while.”
While the new “Graph Search” function is limited to searching within the social network, it goes beyond Facebook’s earlier search tools to let people query the network for things they are interested in – such as photos of a certain topic, or photos taken in a certain year, a list of friends who like “Game of Thrones,” or a list of restaurants that are liked by friends who moved to San Francisco from India.
It will also rank the results – for example, Zuckerberg said the tool will show photos in the order of how interesting they are, as determined by the number of “likes” and comments they have previously received. The rankings also take into consideration how close the searcher is to other people on Facebook, based on how often they interact on the network.
Zuckerberg said the service was developed for users and does not yet have a business model for earning money. But in a possible hint at commercial applications, a Facebook engineer demonstrated how the service could be used by a job recruiter to search for NASA employees who live in a certain area.
Facebook also announced a closer partnership with Microsoft Corp.’s Bing search engine, which will provide search results from the Web to augment searches on Facebook.
The new search tool is being introduced gradually; Zuckerberg stressed that it’s in “beta” mode and said it will initially be offered only to a few hundred users. It won’t be available on the company’s mobile apps and will not be tied into the system that lets Facebook users “like” other Web pages and services outside Facebook’s network. While the company hopes to add more features in time, Zuckerberg said Graph Search is currently focused on four areas: people, places, photos and interests.
Zuckerberg also stressed that the company is sensitive to privacy concerns. Facebook has angered users in the past by introducing new services that seemed to expose personal information in ways that users didn’t expect. Zuckerberg said that’s why the company last month added new tools to help users check the status of the photos and other content they have posted, so they can tell which items are available for public view and change the settings if they wish.