Facebook expands Graph Search to include status updates and posts

Posted on 30/09/2013 by Melissa Grey

Today, Facebook is giving Graph Search something of a power-up by adding status updates and posts to the list of content it can access. Previously, the revamped search engine could only scan four types of information -- people, photos, places and interests -- when presented with queries like "who are my friends in New York City?" Now, if someone types in "posts about bacon from the last month," your recent public complaint about the wilted lettuce in your B.L.T. will pop up. Also included in the expansion are check-ins, comments and photo captions. As it has at every step of the Graph Search rollout, Facebook is quick to assure its users that the feature respects your privacy settings, so only content that's been shared with you or is otherwise publicly accessible will show up in search results. For more information, head on over to the source link below.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Source: Facebook

Facebook unveils Trending Topics, makes Graph Search available everywhere in US English

Posted on 07/08/2013 by Jon Fingas

Facebook must be a little envious of Twitter's ability to seize on trends -- it just started experimenting with Trending Topics, a Timeline card that shows the hottest subjects on the social network. Users can tap a trend to see both public comments and posts, whether or not the contributors are friends. The service is only being tested with a small number of those using Facebook's mobile website right now. If you're too impatient for that, the company has a consolation prize: Graph Search is now available to everyone visiting the site in US English, regardless of where they live. The expansion comes with the end to a handy privacy tool that lets members see who can search their Timeline, but Facebook claims that few have been using this feature -- we shouldn't miss it too much.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Facebook Newsroom, AllThingsD

This is Your Life: Facebook and the business of identity

Posted on 16/07/2013 by Donald Melanson

"The story of your life."

With that phrase, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the company's new Timeline profile in the fall of 2011. The social network's original profile page, he explained, was the first place where most people "felt safe expressing their real self" on the internet, but it was only the "first five minutes of your conversation." A major redesign in 2008 extended that to "the next 15 minutes." Timeline, though, was the "next few hours." Your true self, in full.

To illustrate the point, Zuckerberg went on to show a promotional video that put This Is Your Life to shame by recapping one man's life from his own birth to the birth of his child (and then some) in just over a minute. Facebook has always wanted to be your online identity -- your internet, in many ways -- but it was now also bringing something else to the fore that once had a tendency to fade into the background; your memories.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Facebook rolling out Graph Search to US users this week

Posted on 08/07/2013 by Sean Buckley

Remember that profile-specific social network search tool Mark Zuckerberg announced back in January? It's finally ready for the general public. According to the New York Times and ABC News, Facebook Graph Search will start rolling out to US users this Monday. The update is more than a simple search bar revamp, however -- it allows users to mine their social circle for very specific information, asking questions like "Who are my friends in San Francisco," or searching for "people who went to Stanford who like the 49ers." The tool is designed to harken back to the company's original goal of connecting people, and aims to help users draw lines between their friends and interests. Graph Search will also pull select data from Bing, allowing users to peek at the weather from the comfort of their timeline.

Despite launching on a wider scale, the service isn't perfect -- the New York Times reports that it still has trouble juggling synonymous phrases (something we experienced in our own hands-on), returning discrepant results for searches like "people who like to surf" and "people who like surfing." The tool also works within the confines of a user's privacy settings and public activity, meaning that you won't accidentally uncover your cousin's secret My Little Pony fan-group if its privacy settings are locked down. The feature is set to debut for a few hundred million users this week, and will continue to become available to the all US users in the coming weeks.

Filed under: Internet, Facebook

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Via: Verge

Source: New York Times, ABC News

The Weekly Roundup for 01.14.2013

Posted on 21/01/2013 by David Fishman

You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 7 days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

HP Envy x2 review

A tablet / laptop hybrid that fails to deliver the complete package.

Tesla Model X SUV hands-on

Here in Detroit at NAIAS the 2014 model year car is making another appearance...

CES 2013: Best in show

Selecting the best in show is no easy task, because CES covers such a crazy range of devices...

Facebook Graph Search hands-on

We just had a quick hands-on of Facebook's new "Graph Search" at one of the demo stations...

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Facebook partners with Bing to deliver web results in Graph Search

Posted on 15/01/2013 by Terrence O'Brien

Social media giant Facebook just announced that its new Graph Search tool will also incorporate results from the wider web thanks to a partnership with Microsoft and Bing. Obviously, people won't flock to Graph Search if it's capabilities are limited to where your friends live and the restaurants they like. Zuckerberg and crew will have to provide some way to find information that Facebook simply can't provide (for now...). That's where Bing comes in, with its ability to pull data like current weather conditions -- something your old frat buddies are probably useless to provide. This is hardly the first time Redmond has gotten cozy with Facebook. The social network is integrated rather closely with the search engine and Bing has been providing web search results on Facebook for sometime. Now there'es just less of a wall between the two when looking at results. With Graph Search, Bing results are put front and center, with some social context. For a bit more information from Microsoft's perspective hit up the more coverage link.

Gallery: Facebook partners with Bing to deliver web results in Graph Search

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Facebook

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Facebook launching ‘Graph Search’ personalized social search engine, beta starts today (video)

Posted on 15/01/2013 by Ben Gilbert

Facebook this morning announced "Graph Search," a way to search all of Facebook's content for queries tailored to your profile. CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the search by saying, "Graph Search is meant to answer very specific questions like 'Who are my friends in San Francisco?" In a video released by Facebook just after the announcement, project lead Lars Rasmussen (formerly of Google Maps / Waves fame) related a story about needing a dentist in a town he'd just moved to, and being able to search through which dentists his friends used for a tailored result. Worry not, privacy protectors: we're told Graph Search is "privacy aware;" Facebook's even dedicated 10 percent of its computing power just to the goal of ensuring privacy. And no, none of your privacy settings will automatically change as a result of signing up or using Graph Search.

It's being touted as a return to Facebook's roots, when the company's main goal was forging connections between people (rather than, say, a gaming portal, or a means for companies to advertise). Graph Search is essentially a relaunch of Facebook's internal search engine, allowing its already existing users to forge new relationships with folks they may not otherwise meet, and to find content that's hyper-specific. The beta -- albeit in a limited, English-only capacity -- kicks off today. During that period only a "subset of content" is available through search, with four primary areas of focus: people, photos, places, and interests. Facebooks says Graph Search will expand, "over the coming months," with additions like searchable wall posts and song listens (only if your privacy settings allow those things to be searchable, that is).

You can head right here to get whitelisted for the beta, which is apparently rolling out "very slowly." Or you could head past the break right now for the full PR from Facebook and a walkthrough video, as well as a slew of updates from our liveblog.

Gallery: Facebook Graph Search