Facebook’s Newest Addition – Graph Search

The third piece of mega social media platform, Facebook was revealed Tuesday. The new pillar that will become a part of the medium alongside News Feed and Timeline is Graph Search. With this new unveiling, how will it impact regular users, businesses and those advertising on Facebook?

According to infamous CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Graph Search will not be used as and is not a generic search tool indexing from the web. The information is collated and indexed all through Facebook. He also added that rather than the search direct you to a link or a page, Graph Search will deliver the results straight away.

So how does it exactly work? Graph Search works similarly to Google Instant Search, although the program is structured to deliver answers from simple phrases; i.e. “Photos of my friends in China” or “Places Jane Smith has visited”. If your friends have been geotagged (geographically tagged the location to the photograph) they will be sourced and presented as your result. If facebook is unable to find the information containing your search, Facebook will display results from Bing.

Graph Search works around sourcing four types of things – People, Places, Interests and Photos. It’s a way of connecting and linking through the pool of social information that facebook has stored.

This may become a social danger. With the ability to make Graph Search filter through the information with a specific phrase such as “women who live near me that go to university, support Essendon football club and are single”. There is a possibility that Graph Search may assist those looking to online date or it could turn into a potential stalking tool.

Considering more and more people are using Facebook via their mobile phones, it’s a wonder as to why Zuckerberg didn’t release the new search function on mobile devices before desktops. While more users are tapping into Facebook via their mobile phones, they are less engaged and spending less time than when browsing through Facebook on a desktop.

For brands that use facebook as a marketing tool, now have the option to filter for their niche market and be more proactive with their social media presence. Before Graph Search many businesses used their facebook pages as a means to force their way up the Google algorithm ladder to place a higher position in SER. With this new tool, it will allow small businesses who have a weak online presence to become more noticed within local search listings.

It has been noted by Kevin Mullet, director of product development for Cirrus ABS and SEO expert, that this can be exceptionally beneficial for business and make it more crucial for businesses to display information that is “correct and complete”.

Graph Search also brings the major opportunity for businesses to advertise. When searching, for example, for a hairdresser in your local area that is open late; there could be an adjoining advertisement placed beside the results with an offer for discounted cuts and highlights in the area searched.

With time, we are sure that Graph Search will be tweaked after tests and analysis are conducted and the company will begin to refine the new tool and make it more accessible to more users in different countries.