On Tuesday, Facebook announced it’s new feature “Graph Search”, which can comfortably be called a glimpse into the future of social media search. Graph Search allows the users to search particular information within their Facebook network. The feature has been launched in beta and only a few people are granted access to use it for the time being.
Currently the search on Facebook is really not very impressive. It has often been referred to as it’s weakest feature. Facebook was aware of this shortcoming and had been waiting for the right time to introduce the Graph Search to make a huge impact and gain yet another competitive advantage. So without further hesitation, let’s dig deeper into the features offered and the things users will be able to achieve via Graph Search.
What it Does?
Graph Search helps users to search through their Facebook Network for particular things. For example, if you are looking for the photos of that new year party you went to just the other month, and you don’t remember which one of your friends posted it on Facebook, you can just simply type in “Photos of me and my friends” in the Graph Search. The result provided would be all the photos that you and your friends have posted on Facebook. Now here’s the best part; you are able to add a little bit of a twist in the search to make it more specific. Let’s say you added “in 2012″ at the end of your query. You would now be provided with the photos that you and your friends shared within the year 2012. The power of the Graph Search is that it is able to put queries into context. We can ask it for specific things such as “Restaurants nearby which my friends have Liked” and get a list of recommendations for dinner.
Zuckerburg’s Statement
Zuckerburg, at Facebook HQ, emphasized to make sure that his message is conveyed properly and does not create expectation balloons. He said, “Graph Search is currently in a beta phase. It’s a new and limited product for now, which focuses on four areas i.e. people, places, interests, and photos.”
Our first impressions
In our opinion, this feature opens a whole new world of possibilities. Having the ability to sift through the gold-mine of data that exists on each person’s Facebook profile is going to lead to some very useful applications being developed. People may argue that Google and Apple are able to use their voice assistants like Siri to provide things like restaurant listings. While this is true, the advantage here lies in the ability for Facebook to provide personalized results based on your friends’ activities and networks.
Conclusion:
If all of this sounds great and you would like to try out the Graph Search, you can get your hands on to it first and sign up for the “Waiting List” at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch
Let us know what you think about the Graph Search and your thoughts on how much potential you feel it has.
