Facebook CEO, Mark Zucherburg, claims that Graph search is going to be the third pillar of Facebook after the newsfeed and the timeline, and indeed it is one step closer in making the world a smaller place. The most unique feature that Graph search promises to bring to the search experience of a user is a personalized touch with each user getting unique results for the same kind of search based on their friends and preferences.

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Graph search uses an object-oriented approach to a web search rather than a keyword-based search, which most search engines use. The technology behind Graph search has been developed by Facebook in Unicorn, which creates indices of data and retrieves them back quickly in order to work with large data sets at best possible speeds. For those who would like to know how the system works in detail, Facebook engineers have put it all down in an easy-to-understand blog.

The new search features will enable users to search for restaurants, movies, hang-out places, music, etc. based on what their friends or friends’ friends have liked or have posted about. It makes it easier to find things to do in a new place based on your friends’ experiences in that place or just to find your friends’ friends who might be interested in the same things as you.

However, even though Graph search is ‘privacy-conscious’, it still poses a big privacy issue.  All that you post on facebook, will show up in your friends’ searches and maybe even strangers’ searches (based on who you have made the content available to). Moreover, the content from the past shows up in the search too (you can even do a search by year), so, the posts that you might have even forgotten that you had ever posted can come back to haunt you.

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As with every new feature that facebook launches, this one can be monetized as well, with facebook selling the data to advertisers. With a tool like this, advertisers can find out all about you and know just how to get you to buy that new product that is “must-have” because all your friends have it. Having said that, all due credit needs to be given to this exciting technology.

 Currently, the Graph Search is still in its preliminary stages and has been rolled out to very few users but those interested can sign up for the waiting list. Thus, the data available in the search results is very limited. Once, it has been rolled out to all the users (unfortunately, this is not going to be a matter of choice), the data pool will be massive and the search results will be similar to ones that show up in a google of a bing search but with a personal touch added to the results.

 

You can reach Shruti Sharma here.