Facebook begins rolling out Graph Search to U.S. users

Facebook's Graph Search.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dara Kerr/CNET)

Brace yourself for another Facebook search bar change.

The social-networking giant will begin rolling out an advanced search feature on Monday designed to tap its massive base of 1 billion users to answers users' questions about people, photos, places, and interests. Graph Search, which was announced earlier this year, will be available to users in the United States and others who use the American English version of the site, with access to other languages coming soon, a Facebook representative told CNET.

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg announced the new feature in January, billing it as a new way find people, photos, places and interests that are most relevant to Facebook users. By incorporating various filters such as "place type," "liked by," and "visited by friends," users can use the structured search tool to find people in their network and uncover potential connections.

The new tool, which was rolled out to a limited number of users earlier this year, will appear as a bigger search bar at the top of each page, replacing the usual white search bar. Not to be confused with Web searches, which use a set of keywords to come up with results that best match the search words, Graph Search combines phrases to return content from its own audience.

Recognizing that the new tool exposes a copious amount of personal data that members may not realize is available for public scrutiny, Facebook has been working to quell users' privacy fears, including implementing specific search rules that dictate what results regarding teenagers that adults can see.

The search feature could prove key to keeping users members engaged on the site. My CNET colleague Jennifer Van Grove called the powerful discovery tool "smart, original, and a foundational piece of Facebook's future as a relevant social network."

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57592584-93/facebook-begins-rolling-out-graph-search-to-u.s-users/

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