Thursday, January 17, 2013

Facebook Officially Snags A Passport from The Land of Search Engines



Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you wish you could instantly pull something up that you saw entirely way too long ago on your Facebook feed? or maybe your planning a trip somewhere and want to reconnect with some old friends that might still be in that area?

In situations like these, I usually find myself saying to someone else “I saw the cutest picture of someone’s dog on Facebook a few days ago, you have to see it!” or “Do you know anyone who still lives in the Miami area?” and for some odd reason I cant recall who exactly posted the picture I wanted to share or what friends of mine (ours) still live in Miami. I tend to be a little on the stubborn side, so when I want to find something, I’m determined to search until I find it. This is when I find myself scowling my timeline for hours just in hopes that something will spark my memory to give me the information I need in order to visit whoever’s page I was searching for in the first place. Most of the time I give up based on the “seasick/overwhelming” feeling that takes over my body as a result of the constant scrolling and scanning I’ve put my senses through.

I’ve heard some buzz around the social media industry that Facebook is building a helpful solution to this very problem, its very own search engine. Facebook is essentially allowing its users to search within the network they created for more specific results based on particular wants or needs. Right now, it’s only in the beta stage and will only focus search results on people, photos, places and interests. This is where Facebook’s handy new feature claims it will save you A LOT of time and searching effort.

Apparently the feature will allow users to ask questions in simple sentences just as you would when using Google’s search engine. So, how would I benefit from this new internal “search engine”?

In this case, I would be able to simply plug the following sentence into the search field; “which of my friends live in Miami?” Facebook actually filters your results and ranks them based on interactivity and connections within your network. Facebook would provide you with a generated list of friends who currently live in the specified area. The great thing about this calculated search approach is that you’re closest and most trusted or recent friends appear at the top of your list, leaving your acquaintances at the bottom.

By no means is this new feature going to give Google a run for its money, but for now, it will provide Facebook users with a cool feature that lots of people could find extremely useful!

Keep at this one Facebook! I think this search engine might have a lot of potential to bring in revenue through commercial, business, products/services results in the future! 

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