It was 3 weeks into the New Year and Facebook already came up with something new. Could it be a new timeline format change, a new greeting message in our status box, or even a whole new brand of scrolling? Nope, it’s a search engine. Heads up, Google.
Facebook announced its latest creation with a Beta version Graph Search, a Facebook-only content search engine. Users will soon be able to search the social media site for specific content, ranging from people, photos, places and business pages. All those photos from last summer and location tags are now searchable tidbits of data.
What exactly is it good for? Here are some logical search inquires we came up with that may prove useful in testing out the new Graph Search:
- Finding out coworkers similar hobbies and interests
- Discovering the name of a restaurant someone went to and recommended last week
- Who you know that lives in Chicago or New York currently
- The name of the band your friend was listening to on Spotify yesterday
- The events your friends attended last Spring Break
Considering moving to a new city for a job? With Graph Search, you can discover which of your friends live there, the places they’ve visited, pictures taken there, and what those people’s interests are.
It’s a social search engine. Remember these words, SEARCH ENGINE.
While all this information is readily available on a person’s timeline, it would take a considerable amount of scrolling, date-recollecting and content skimming to find exactly what you’re looking for. Facebook has instead put this massive data collection into a convenient searchable format.
In the social world and especially in the professional world, everyone says “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” In the case of a social media search engine, it’s who you know, and what they’re willing to let you know. Facebook is keen on stressing the fact that information will only be searchable and available if a person has approved it on their timeline and selected you as a person allowed to see it. Therefore, everyone’s search results will be different.
From a business owner’s viewpoint, Graph Search will provide data of exactly what people are saying about your business. Once someone has tagged your business, you can easily search for the location tag, see the status update, and view the photo uploaded alongside it. What’s better feedback than a personal comment made by a customer and shared to all of their friends? Business owners can really get a sense of both their online presence and what customer’s opinions are.
Facebook’s Graph Search is just another technological tool that allows PR companies to get an honest understanding of how companies are portrayed to consumers. With so many vastly different social media platforms, data searching points, and scattered information, business owners can easily become overwhelmed with all the data. That’s why at agencies like Media Fusion, we’ll take care of the research for you. We know what to look for and we know what information matters.
Let’s see what Facebook comes up with for February!