In a post on the social giant’s “Newsroom” it showcased the new ability to search by topic – such as “posts about Dancing with the Stars by my friends” – and also by place or time (for example, “Posts written at The White House”).
Facebook is making it even easier to search the posts and status updates of your friends (and other people who leave their posts unprotected) months after first introducing its Graph Search feature.
In a post on the social giant's "Newsroom" it showcased the new ability to search by topic – such as "posts about Dancing with the Stars by my friends" – and also by place or time (for example, "Posts written at The White House").
The company said the new search features will be rolled out slowly, it could be months before some users see the advanced functions.
In recent weeks Facebook has also introduced tagging so users can better categorize their posts, and has begun working on deals with media companies to share data about who is "liking" their shows and properties (Twitter has been cutting similar deals).
In January, Facebook began rolling out the beta version of Graph Search, a fairly basic functional improvement that allowed users to sift through the billions of things shared on Facebook.
For many, letting users search posted content and "like" activity was long overdue (and Facebook needed to build its own search because it doesn't let outside engines like Google index the contents of its website). Facebook search used to be limited to finding other users or groups.
When the Graph Search arrived for the rest of Facebook's users in July, sites posted dozens of examples of creepy stuff you can use the search to reveal. (A popular creepy search is to find "My Friends who use [insert embarrassing app like Tinder, Candy Crush Saga, etc.]")
Just remember, the increased ability to discover things inside Facebook – which for years was a river that rolled by with little ability to go back to things if you didn't see them in your feed – is driven in part by of Facebook's transition to a money-printing advertising platform. It can be useful, but it's even more useful to the people buying Facebook data in order to target ads at you.
That said, you can take steps to limit the amount of creeping.
Shane Dingman