Facebook announces new "graph search" feature
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckergerg announces graph search at a press event in Menlo Park, Calif. on Jan. 15, 2013. / CNET/James Martin
Facebook announced that it is launching a search engine for the social network called "graph search."
At a press event in Menlo Park, Calif., Tuesday CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social network is launching a search engine that will run inside of Facebook.
"What is graph search? It's not web search," Zuckerberg told reporters.
During a comparison of graph search with a web search, Zuckerberg demonstrated that graph search will deliver answers to questions like, "Who are my friends that live in San Francisco?"
Graph search focuses on people, photos, places and interests. Users can type a question into the search bar on Facebook and ask questions. An option to refine searches is also provided.
Zuckerberg showed off other searched like: "Mexican restaurants in Palo Alto, Calif, my friends have been to" and "Photos of me and Priscilla." The search is in still in its beta phase.
Facebook users can search for specific photos, like "photos of Berlin, German from 1989," "photos of my friends before 1990" or "photos I've liked."
Zuckerberg also touched on privacy concerns and pointed out to privacy shortcuts, which are located at the top right section of the website. The setting lets users see what photos have been uploaded, tagged and hidden from Timeline.
Facebook Graph Search is in the early stages of development. Because of a partnership with Bing, any results that cannot be found on Facebook will pull from Bing.com.
The social network was previously rumored to unveil a "Facebook phone," even though Zuckerberg has publically shot down speculation that Facebook was planning to build a smartphone.
"It is so clearly the wrong strategy for us," Zuckerberg said at a September technology conference in his first public interview after Facebook's May initial public offering. "It doesn't move the needle for us."
Facebook's graph search is in closed beta. Users who want to sign up for the test can join the waiting list on Facebook's website.
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company reports 1 billion monthly active users, 240 billion photos and 1 trillion connections.
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That's great, but I live in Chicago and don't have any friends in San Francisco! Why did this thing require a press conference? I've got an old friend in San Jose.
-What about the 90% of everyone I know that falsifies their FB info? I definitely know that the 3-5 TV shows I imputed 4 years ago have changed, along with political views, and restaurants.
-When people upload pictures, they usually do it in the default way, but most don't have a location, that makes most pictures off limits to the search, and a handful of embarrassingly ancient photos of me searchable. Now I have to find them and un-location them.
-In order for this to accurately or helpfully work any more than a simple search for a friend currently is for everyone to loosen their privacy settings to 'friends of friends'?
-If it doesn't pull anything useful up, then it automatically searches the web with Bing? (that alone turns me away)
This sounds like a flop. Sorry facebook. It may be useful, but only in the one time every 3 months i use it.