Facebook’s product has made headlines. But the news did
not surprise those who had been able to read between the lines when the
company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg referred to it at TechDisrupt 2012, while also discussing
the company’s plans to go mobile and focus on monetization.
Graph Search is currently being tested in beta
within the US. Users can access it by adding themselves to the waiting list, after which
the new search box will replace the present. The way it works is users log in
to their Facebook
Timeline and type whatever they wish to search for. Unlike web search,
which requires typing keywords, users can type in complete/incomplete phrases
based on four distinct categories. These are: people, places, photos and
interests. The search offers suggestions for users as an alternative. The
quality of results is derived from the user’s intra network and is based
on: i) the frequency of user activity
within the network and ii) the quantity of users within one’s own network. To
sum it up, the user has to be highly active on the social front.
Where the results are insufficient, the search
switches to web search engine Bing, courtesy Microsoft, which is incidentally,
Facebook’s partner. Aware of intense competition, mainly from Microsoft and
Google, Facebook has expressed their intention being not as much as to compete
as it is to offer ‘something new’. On Facebook, it is limited within the user’s
network.
From the business aspect, critics believe the ‘new’
product is less beneficial for users than it is for advertisers, who will be
able to target specific customers based on their search data. This is true to an extent and marketers are
bound to make hay. But Facebook has also reaffirmed their commitment to their
mission by helping users form new connections, while maintaining their privacy.
Except this very commitment may narrow search scope, which makes the data of 1 billion
+ users inaccessible to all. By contrast, search results on Google are produced
from anonymous sources, which make for a much larger compass. Whereas Google
has been around longer and is now focusing on bringing automated ‘push’ results
rather than relying on human effort.
So far, the network
appears prepared for the bout of criticism and has therefore been quick to
admit product limitations. Whether they will overcome them ‘over time,’ remains
to be seen. But there is no doubt Graph Search adds another interesting dimension
to the platform, one that the company hopes will incentivize companies and Facebook
App Developers to invest further. If things go as planned, the search
engine may just become big, maybe even bigger than its competition. 