Facebook (META 1.54%) announced today that it is opening up its beta Graph Search to all English-version Facebook users.
Search functions have largely lagged other developments across the Internet, and Facebook's latest trial is meant to revolutionize the way users find and connect information across its social network. The beta version has been tested by tens of millions of people, Facebook said, allowing the company to continually develop and hone its latest technology. The company says its new Graph Search is faster, smarter, and easier to use than its basic search function.
Source: Facebook.com.
As an example, Facebook notes that if you search "Photos of San Francisco," Graph Search will automatically pool public photos of San Francisco, as well as personalize the search to include any of your friends' photos that were taken in the city.
Looking ahead, the company press release states that "this is just the beginning," with a mobile version and updates already in the works.
Facebook's tool is most useful in unearthing information about your social circles. Graph Search lets you find things like friends of friends who live near you and like hiking or photos of your boyfriend taken before you met him in 2010. Soon after Facebook launched Graph Search in January, the Internet had a field day with less innocuous and more embarrassing queries, showing just how much information people reveal about themselves on the site.
-- Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
