graph

Facebook Graph Search: 4 big reasons it matters

In its most basic state, Facebook's nascent Graph Search is a structured search engine for finding people, places, photos, and interests on Facebook. But the third-pillar product, which surfaces information hiding in Facebook's secret garden, has depth that we're only beginning to understand.

Graph Search is a new paradigm in search that could make modern search giants start to look dated. It's also a powerful new vehicle for discovery. Ultimately, Graph Search is smart, original, and a foundational piece of Facebook's future as a relevant social network.

Let's talk about why.

1. Graph Search … Read more

Facebook unveils new search tool (week in review)

Facebook unveiled a new tool this week it touts as helping find people, photos, places, and interests that are most relevant to Facebook users.

Graph Search is the social network's newest way for users to make sense of its massive base of 1 billion users, 240 billion photos, and 1 trillion connections. The tool is meant to provide people the answers to their questions about people, photos, places, and interests. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Graph Search is launching to a small number of people and is available only on the desktop and in English for the time being.

People … Read more

What should Google do about Facebook Graph Search?

When Facebook introduced its next-generation search product in Menlo Park, Calif., this week, the announcement was no doubt being watched closely in nearby Mountain View.

The data that Google engineers have craved for years -- rich portraits of connections between people, places, and things, all tied to real identities -- was suddenly searchable on Facebook. It's data Google is trying to replicate, using Google+ and other products, but there's no doubt that Facebook's billion-member network has given it the advantage. You can imagine the Google crew listening to Mark Zuckerberg describe the data that underpins Graph Search … Read more

Graph Search augurs Age of Enlightenment for Facebook

After nine years of colonizing the globe and corralling a billion people, Facebook has found a way to unlock the potential of its massive data collection -- a basic semantic search engine that will let it build smarter services for travel, food, recruitment, dating and other verticals that will generate revenue that could rival Google's.

Connecting people via News Feeds (what's going on in the world) and Timelines (who you are) will be remembered as Facebook's Renaissance era, weaving a social fabric into the Internet with 1 trillion connections. Graph Search is the beginning of the Enlightenment, … Read more

Graph Search highlights Facebook's unwillingness to bend to Wall Street

Facebook bends to no one, particularly not bankers and investors looking for perfection. That's the message Wall Street received with the beta release of Graph Search, the social network's first milestone launch since becoming a public company.

Graph Search is Facebook's experimental take on search and alters the social-networking experience to support discovery through natural language queries on people, photos, places, and interests.

Graph Search is so significant in scope and purpose that Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg anointed the product a "third pillar," which makes it as core to Facebook as Timeline and News Feed. … Read more

Zuckerberg's vision realized: One graph to rule them all

Mark Zuckerberg's vision for a world in which people are connected to each other for all time has remained unrealized, despite his best efforts with Open Graph and Timeline. But with Graph Search, he may have finally found the last piece of the puzzle.

"Our mission is to make the world more open and connected," the Facebook CEO said last year at the TC Disrupt conference. "We do this by giving people the power to share whatever they want and be connected to whoever they want, no matter where they are."

In Zuckerberg's world, … Read more

Facebook might make money from its search tool, analysts say

Facebook did not introduce a phone as many had hoped, but its new Graph Search might actually be able to generate revenue for the social-networking giant, analysts say.

Still, Facebook likely won't make much money from the tool in the near term as it focuses on user experience, analysts added, and people shouldn't expect Facebook to actually challenge Google's search dominance anytime soon.

In addition, Facebook's stock could see some short-term pressure from investors who were expecting a larger announcement like a phone or Web search, RBC analyst Mark Mahaney said.

Facebook, during an event yesterday … Read more

Facebook Graph Search: First impressions

Turn Graph Search on and your Facebook experience will never again be the same. The social network's radical take two on search transforms your entire experience: Graph Search follows you wherever you go and gives you a window to a digital world you always knew existed but never had the privilege of visiting.

On Tuesday, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the company's search product for finding people, places, photos, and interests. Available in limited release, Graph Search is a tool for using natural language to find information hiding in plain sight.

How you use Facebook's new … Read more

Now's a really good time to update these Facebook privacy settings

As details of Facebook's Graph Search unfolded this morning, users heaved a sigh of relief when they learned that Facebook would not be exposing our innermost privacies with its latest product -- the company would simply search the data we've already (willfully) shared and make it easily accessible to friends.

Your data. Easily accessible to friends.

In the new search bar, a Facebook user can search for something like, "Friends who like 'Star Wars' and cooking." Immediately, Facebook will dig through that user's friends' likes and interests to find relevant matches. Facebook doesn't magically … Read more