According to Facebook, there are hundreds of thousands of people using this new graph search. Facebook is trying to get people to push beyond their old habits of only searching for friends. Let’s take a look at some of the innovative ways Facebook is encouraging people to use the new graph search.
Facebook wants to take finding friends to a whole another level. It’s no surprise that people started using this graph search to find friends; because let’s face it, the majority of searches people trying to connect with friends. Facebook has decided to show more than just the person you’re searching for. For example, they are starting to show videos, pictures, a specific date, or maybe some of the celebrities or other websites they have liked in the past. Here’s what it will look like:
Then, Facebook will begin to push for photos posted by brands, and businesses, not so much your friends. They will begin to show results of pictures shared from important events, or sporting events like the Superbowl.
This social network giant is also helping people plan trips, whether it be day trips to the museum, ski trip, or an extended vacation to Europe. For example, if you type in ski resorts, Facebook will bring up results of all the ski resorts your friends have gone to.
Facebook is trying to expand its users’ horizons beyond just searching for friends. They want to express the fact that this new Graph Search is more advanced and useful than the old search bar. Facebook wants its users to take full advantage of every single feature of the Graph Search! Getting people to move beyond just finding friends, can help Facebook build a search business that rivals that of Google and Bing. Just to kind of highlight what Facebook’s goal is: they want people to drop their habit of only searching for people, so that they can create a search engine within a social media site that rivals, and maybe someday, surpasses Google, the legendary search engine.
Will this ever happen? We obviously do not know. But if I owned a business, I would make sure my page was fully optimized, and that I had as many followers as possible! Because if Facebook, somehow pulls off what seems like the impossible, people will start using this site more to find local businesses, than friends!
By Joe Giorgianni