Facebook Is Changing Search For All US Users Starting Today
Owen Thomas, Business Insider
What it looks like when you look up photos in Graph Search.
Starting today, Facebook will begin rolling out its new Graph Search product to all US English users.
Facebook originally announced Graph Search in January of this year, but it has only been available to a relative handful of users for initial testing. Now, Facebook says Graph Search is complete and will roll out to every user over the coming weeks.
Graph Search replaces the old Facebook search bar with one that lets you look up a wide variety of information about your connections. For example, you can get as specific as "friends I went to high school with who like Breaking Bad," or as broad as "Chinese restaurants in New York that my friends like." It also makes it very easy to look up photos of you and your friends.
The tool only works on the Web version of Facebook, but will eventually roll out to mobile apps too.
As far as privacy goes, Graph Search can only display information to people you originally shared it with. So, for example, if you made your relationship status public, anyone will be able to search for that. But if you only shared with your Facebook friends that you like cliff diving, then only your friends will be able to search for it.
Facebook has made several improvements to Graph Search in the last few months. Here's a breakdown of what's changed, according to the company's announcement:
Speed: Graph Search is faster – both at suggesting potential searches and displaying results
Query understanding: Graph Search understands more ways of asking questions
Results: Graph Search does a better job at showing the most relevant results first
Interface: The search box is easier to see and use
You'll know you have Graph Search when you see your regular search bar switch to a big, white bar instead.
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