Facebook fans in the United States get a new feature today with the arrival of Graph Search, allowing social networkers to connect on a new level by searching for specific terms and finding friends who share common interests.
Offering a deeper search facility than ever before, Graph Search will let Facebookers ask a question about their friends or revisit viewed content from their recent history by using a search box and the desired terms.
For example, if you wanted to find a new running buddy you’d be able to type in ‘Which of my friends like cycling’ and Facebook will seek results from stored metadata and let you find your most active mates. Or perhaps you have a spare gig ticket, ask it ‘Which of my friends like Iron Maiden?’ and it should bring up dozens of potentials. (If it doesn’t, you have the wrong friends!)
The search applies for all interests and activities, extending to events and restaurants and U.S. Facebook users can also ask to view their previously liked photos, as well as content shared with friends and also ask questions to the web at large thanks to the integration of Microsoft’s search engine Bing.
The Facebook Graph Search feature has now gone live across the pond and we await news of when us Brits will get to try it for ourselves, but you can join a waiting list for the beta version right now and we’ll keep you posted!