Facebook Debuts New Search Functionality

Facebook has announced the arrival of a new feature dubbed “Graph Search” which will allow its users to create custom pages that are built from content derived from plain-language search phrases, such as “People who like the things I like.” Graph Search will store that query as a page that can be revisited, and as new content appears on Facebook, the page will constantly update with new information.

What this means for you:

If you don’t have a Facebook account (or even if you do) you might not care much about this initially, and depending on how much of your life is lived purposefully online, you might actually be looking forward to this capability. It will definitely allow you to expand your social network in ways that previously could only happen via serendipity and active interaction. Now, you can create Graph Search pages for things like, “People who like Movies and live in Los Angeles” or “Single females living in New York, NY.” Getting a little creeped out yet? Graph Search will index every aspect of all Facebook users’ profiles, their posting history, likes (obviously) as well as everything they do that is connected to Facebook (including logins and access privileges to other websites that use Facebook as an authentication source, ie. Pinterest, Instagram, etc.) Before you completely freak out, Graph Searchers will only be able to see results that they already have access through each person’s privacy settings so it’s not like your privacy is being invaded all over again.

But, if you’ve been on Facebook a while, it’s quite possible you’ve posted pictures or comments or other activities that you might have forgotten about. At the time, it was just a harmless picture of you doing a keg stand with your fraternity brothers, right? Quote: “I really like beer.” Graph Search: “People who live in Los Angeles and like beer.”

It might be time to go through your Facebook albums and scrub that timeline, no?