Facebook to take on Google with personalized 'Graph Search'

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Facebook on Tuesday announced a new feature for the social networking site that promises to make it easier to locate personalized content through searching.

Facebook


The new "Graph Search" functionality unveiled by Facebook is an easier way for users to search what they and their friends have shared on Facebook. For example, searching in natural language for "photos of my friends in Palo Alto, California taken in 2010" will serve those specifically tailored results.

In its first version, Graph Search will focus on four main areas of interest: people, photos, places and interests. Example queries provided by Facebook include "software engineers who live in San Francisco and like skiing," "photos of the Eiffel Tower," "Indian restaurants liked by my friends from India," and "strategy games played by friends of my friends."

For information that exists outside of Facebook, the site will continue to serve results scoured by Microsoft's Bing search engine, and not Google.

Facebook


But graph search varies from Web search in that every piece of content hosted by Facebook has its own audience, and most of that content isn't public ? unlike the results offered by Google or Bing.

"We've built Graph Search from the start with privacy in mind, and it respects the privacy and audience of each piece of content on Facebook," the site said. "It makes finding new things much easier, but you can only see what you could already view elsewhere on Facebook."

Graph Search is currently in beta and is available to some users of the site in a limited preview. Users can sign up by visiting facebook.com/about/graphsearch. Initially it will only be available in the browser, and not as a part of Facebook's mobile site or apps.

"Graph Search will appear as a bigger search bar at the top of each page," the company said in a statement. "When you search for something, that search not only determines the set of results you get, but also serves as a title for the page. You can edit the title ? and in doing so create your own custom view of the content you and your friends have shared on Facebook."

Facebook, which has more than a billion active monthly users, has strengthened its partnerships with Apple in the last year, as Facebook integration has found its way into both the iOS and OS X platforms. Late Apple co-founder also said that he admired Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, saying he had an "intuitive feel" for company needs and passion.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 36
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Literal: "Facebook to take on Google"

    Implied: "Facebook becoming more Google-creepy"
  • Reply 2 of 36
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SockRolid View Post



    Literal: "Facebook to take on Google"



    Implied: "Facebook becoming more Google-creepy"


     


    Facebook has alway been Google-creepy, it's just that Facebook is somewhat avoidable, Google isn't

  • Reply 3 of 36
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    Its just a trumped up on-site search facility, no threat to Google at all in its present form.
  • Reply 4 of 36
    gordygordy Posts: 1,004member


    At what point will Facebook be required to delete user accounts upon request a la Google+?  I think I'm over fb.

  • Reply 5 of 36
    gordygordy Posts: 1,004member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by 1983 View Post



    Its just a trumped up on-site search facility, no threat to Google at all in its present form.


     


    Unless you consider the marketing potential--which is Google's bread & butter.  Over a billion consumers, complete with associations, likes, and other sorts of data.  A marketer's dream.

  • Reply 6 of 36

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by anonymouse View Post


     


    Facebook has alway been Google-creepy, it's just that Facebook is somewhat avoidable, Google isn't



    Google is hard to avoid, but not impossible. It's not like they force you to create a Google+ account just to do a search.


     


    I now search using Duck-Duck-Go and use Bing for mapping. I'm finding search results aren't as good, but the order appears to be actual relevancy and not who is paying to be at the top of the list. There aren't any explicitly "sponsored" results either. Bing's bird's eye view is much better than Google's standard overhead imaging.

  • Reply 7 of 36
    ifij775ifij775 Posts: 470member
    Please hook Siri upto that and destroy Google
  • Reply 8 of 36
    It looks like ass.
  • Reply 9 of 36
    ifij775 wrote: »
    Please hook Siri upto that and destroy Google

    Exactly what I was thinking. Not sure if its coincidence, but it sure looks like they're preparing to take advantage of Siri APIs.
  • Reply 10 of 36
    Here's a quarter.....
  • Reply 11 of 36
    jason98jason98 Posts: 768member


    What a freaking useless feature for the useless product from the useless company.


    Target audience - wasted teenagers and soccer moms.


     


    But how does it make the world better? How does it increase the efficiency?

  • Reply 12 of 36
    philboogiephilboogie Posts: 7,675member
    I actually didn't know Facebook was doing anything till this past weekend when I read they would announce something today. They may have a billion users, but how many people use it? I have an account, only because a friend took pictures at a party and didn't wants to share over other means than Facebook. When I read that some have multiple accounts that Billion number drops fast. Not into oblivion, obviously, but you get the picture.

    Now, this Graph Search, will it work because people left the photo metadata in before uploading? Because that will happen when uploading from a smartphone. But as the picture in the article implies it also works on scanned images? People will need to have added that info to their scans - most don't. It's probably the info people put into their timeline, so accuracy is down the shitter, just like Google search results.
  • Reply 13 of 36
    anonymouseanonymouse Posts: 6,857member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Bregalad View Post


    Google is hard to avoid, but not impossible. It's not like they force you to create a Google+ account just to do a search.


     


    I now search using Duck-Duck-Go and use Bing for mapping. I'm finding search results aren't as good, but the order appears to be actual relevancy and not who is paying to be at the top of the list. There aren't any explicitly "sponsored" results either. Bing's bird's eye view is much better than Google's standard overhead imaging.



     


    It's not like you need a Google+ account for them to track you all over the web. It's nearly impossible to completely avoid Google's various tracking systems which are embedded on most web sites these days. Sure, Facebook's tracking systems are on lots of web pages too, but easy to block and not terribly meaningful to them unless you have an account. But, why anyone would want to post their lives in a public place is beyond me.

  • Reply 14 of 36
    ifij775ifij775 Posts: 470member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by PatchyThePirate View Post





    Exactly what I was thinking. Not sure if its coincidence, but it sure looks like they're preparing to take advantage of Siri APIs.


    A Siri API that can search my phone for info held in my apps will be huge. I think this will be an important feature of iPhone 5S/iOS 7 or should be.

  • Reply 15 of 36
    ifij775ifij775 Posts: 470member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jason98 View Post


    What a freaking useless feature for the useless product from the useless company.


    Target audience - wasted teenagers and soccer moms.


     


    But how does it make the world better? How does it increase the efficiency?



    1 Billion people can't be wrong.

  • Reply 16 of 36
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    jason98 wrote: »
    What a freaking useless feature for the useless product from the useless company.
    Target audience - wasted teenagers and soccer moms.

    <span style="line-height:1.231;">But how does it make the world better? How does it increase the efficiency?</span>

    Then don't use it. Problem solved.
  • Reply 17 of 36

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Bregalad View Post


    Google is hard to avoid, but not impossible. It's not like they force you to create a Google+ account just to do a search.


     


    I now search using Duck-Duck-Go and use Bing for mapping. I'm finding search results aren't as good, but the order appears to be actual relevancy and not who is paying to be at the top of the list. There aren't any explicitly "sponsored" results either. Bing's bird's eye view is much better than Google's standard overhead imaging.



     


    I gave Duck-Duck-Go a try just now. It's now my default search engine so thanks for that. So far the searches are just as good but the peace of mind knowing Google is not tracking everything I do is the best part. I'll try it for a few weeks before I fully commit.

  • Reply 18 of 36


    My take is that it is marginally useful for the users.


     


    However, this will be incredibly useful for advertisers, and probably good for Facebook profits.  Remember, with Facebook, you are the product being sold.

     


    E.g. A Japanese restaurant can search for people in downtown Manhattan who like Sushi.  Boom, send them coupons.  I know this feature is not currently available, but it will be in short order.

  • Reply 19 of 36
    When will Zuckerberg realize that most of my family and friends have very different tastes than I do?

    My brother's CD collection has nothing I want in it.

    My college friends have gone on to like a lot of crazy stuff.

    My wife's friends have nothing that I like in common except my wife.

    The social graph is 90% crap.
  • Reply 20 of 36
    allenbfallenbf Posts: 993member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by MacCentric View Post


    My take is that it is marginally useful for the users.


     


    However, this will be incredibly useful for advertisers, and probably good for Facebook profits.  Remember, with Facebook, you are the product being sold.

     


    E.g. A Japanese restaurant can search for people in downtown Manhattan who like Sushi.  Boom, send them coupons.  I know this feature is not currently available, but it will be in short order.



     


    This is exactly what I thought of, only I thought of pizza in my example.  Talk about a targeted audience.  FB is sitting on a gold mine with this.

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