Facebook's Newest Feature: "Graph Search"
On January 15, Facebook announced the launch of the beta version of Graph Search, a shiny new feature that will not only replace the exceptionally poor existent search function but also allow users more command over the information available to them. For those who don’t know, Graph Search basically allows users to search for posts, photos, friends, and pages based on various searchable information (the examples on the Facebook intro page to Graph Search include “photos I like,” “music my friends like,” and “cities visited by my family.” Graph Search also apparently allows for much more elaborate searches, like “Tufts students who are from Orlando and like Robin Williams”). Thus, users will be able to search through their online social world and see results totally unique to themselves, because the results are drawn from the set of pages and apps with which they have interacted on Facebook.
Reactions to the news of Graph Search’s launch have been dramatic. An article on Forbes yesterday asserted that “many observers see the launch of Graph Search as a crucial move for Facebook in its quest to become the one-stop destination on the Internet,” arguing that Facebook’s control of huge amounts of private data is an advantage over generic search engines like Bing and Google. While it is true that Facebook’s enormous database of user information is exceptionally valuable for advertisers, I think that Graph Search has very different features from typical search engines, and is not intended to compete with them. Even Facebook says so on their announcement page about the new feature, and regardless of what one thinks of the social media site’s honor policy, a quick look through Graph Search’s features seem to vindicate this claim.
As a “light” Facebook user, I’m relatively indifferent to Graph Search’s launch. It will be interesting to see what the whole Facebook population thinks. Graph Search’s success depends in part on users’ willingness to click “like” on things they are interested in and share information with others, or in other words, being very active Facebook users. Without users to provide this constant stream of data, Graph Search will turn up empty and uninteresting results.
If you want to try Graph Search, you can sign up to be on the waitlist, as it is still in beta mode.