Facebook Launches Graph Search – Their Answer to Social Search

Facebook have just held a press conference at their Menlo Park headquarters and announced a new (search) product, Facebook Graph Search.

This is Facebook’s answer to social search. You will be able to ask Facebook questions and instead of getting a load of links like regular web search – Facebook will present you with the direct answer – either in the form of text, pictures, place, person etc.

In many ways this is similar to Google’s Knowledge graph, except Facebook has the personalisation and data of 1 billion active users.

The first version of Graph Search focuses on four main areas — people, photos, places, and interests.

People: “friends who live in my city,” “people from my hometown who like hiking,” “friends of friends who have been to Yosemite National Park,” “software engineers who live in San Francisco and like skiing,” “people who like things I like,” “people who like tennis and live nearby”

Photos: “photos I like,” “photos of my family,” “photos of my friends before 1999,” “photos of my friends taken in New York,” “photos of the Eiffel Tower”

Places: “restaurants in San Francisco,” “cities visited by my family,” “Indian restaurants liked by my friends from India,” “tourist attractions in Italy visited by my friends,” “restaurants in New York liked by chefs,” “countries my friends have visited”

Interests: “music my friends like,” “movies liked by people who like movies I like,” “languages my friends speak,” “strategy games played by friends of my friends,” “movies liked by people who are film directors,” “books read by CEOs”

Here is the promo video for Facebook Graph Search:

At this link is also a button where you can run a sample search, and so far the results have been accurate, and interesting!