Facebook takes on Google and Yelp with Graph Search – The Verge

Facebook quietly drops Microsoft Bing from Graph Search

2014-12-12T21:01:01-05:00

Facebook is no longer showing search results from Microsoft's Bing search engine on its on-site Graph Search product, as Reuters reports. The move apparently happened four days ago, alongside an update that improved Graph Search so that it could return specific posts when you search instead of just people. In a statement to Venture Beat, a spokesperson said, "We're not currently showing web search results in Facebook Search because we're focused on helping people find what's been shared with them on Facebook." Microsoft also chimed in, saying "we continue to partner with Facebook in many different areas."

Search is far from a "pillar" for Fa …

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You’re not gonna Like it: Facebook’s new search struggles with the real world

2013-02-15T12:03:24-05:00

facebook graph search lead

One week ago, I received a Facebook message from my friend David. "SUPER random question, but do you know a girl from Michigan whose name is Lauren and lives in Boston?" he asked. "Apparently she is your friend and Jenna's friend on Facebook." I hadn't spoken to David in years, so I was a little confused. "I was using Tinder (a new dating app) for the first time today," he wrote, "and Lauren was the one person I decided to look up since we had 30 mutual friends and shared 30 interests. I guess we'll never know." I was at work, and not in the mood to pore through the 20 Laurens in my friends list to help David find the right girl. Then I reme …

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Facebook Graph Search beta begins rolling out to users

2013-01-24T16:28:33-05:00

Facebook Graph Search

We're seeing numerous reports that Facebook has begun enabling Graph Search for users that were among the first to sign up for the beta program last week. The ambitious new feature promises to change the way you find things on the social network by returning results to natural language queries like "restaurants nearby my friends like" and "pictures of my friends and me." Once you accept Facebook's invitation to try Graph Search, the menubar at the top of the site will switch to a new design that places universal search on the left and relocates friend requests, messages, and notifications over to the ride side of the screen. If you're lucky …

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Graph Search shows that, for Facebook, mobile is still always ‘tomorrow’

2013-01-16T16:52:24-05:00

Facebook Mobile Graph Search launch

Facebook launched Graph Search as a beta product for many reasons: its gradual rollout to only US English users; its limitation to people, photos, places, and interests (posts and Open Graph actions still aren't included); an attempt to manage what could be outsized expectations from both users and Wall Street. But it's also because Graph Search isn't available on most of the devices people use to access Facebook, and it won't be anytime soon.

Graph Search isn't mobile, whether on the web or through any of the company's smartphone or tablet apps. This is a problem. It sharply limits the usefulness of Facebook's new search in almost all of t …

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The genesis of Facebook’s Graph Search

2013-01-15T16:04:16-05:00

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This morning Facebook announced its latest salvo in the battle for web dominance: Graph Search. Using the tremendous amount of data on the company's servers as a resource, Graph Search lets users find restaurants they may like, people they might want to know, and more - all based off natural-language searches. Wired takes a look at the origins of the new feature, from Mark Zuckerberg's first pitch to former-Googler Lars Rasmussen, to how Graph Search helped inspire changes to Facebook's search bar design. If you're interested in knowing where one of our most significant web properties thinks search is going, it's well worth a read.

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Facebook Graph Search hands-on: a brand new social search

2013-01-15T15:32:17-05:00

facebook hands on lead

We just got a chance to play with Facebook's new Graph Search with our personal account, and it's decidedly not a small addition to the site. The entire top menubar has been redesigned, with universal search pinned to the top left, and the friend request, messages, and notification buttons moved over to the far right of the screen. Similarly, you'll notice subtle tweaks to the icon design and coloring. But most important: the word "Facebook" has been banished from the top left, replaced by a small 'f' logo, prompting you to "Search for people, places and things." When you hover your mouse over the box, the logo changes to a magnifying glass, …

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Facebook tackles Google, LinkedIn, Yelp, and its own huge database with Graph Search

2013-01-15T15:13:59-05:00

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Introducing what he called "the third pillar" of Facebook ecosystem today, Mark Zuckerberg was adamant: "Graph Search is not web search," said Facebook's CEO. The implication is that it offers users something different from other search products and Facebook's current features, and that it's technically much harder.

That difficulty means that Zuckerberg has to manage expectations, qualifying Graph Search as "early," as "challenging," as "beta." Without these hedges, if search doesn't work, Wall Street will punish him. But don't be fooled. With Graph Search, Facebook is plugging a big hole in its own features, targeting vulnerable competitor …

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Facebook highlights Bing partnership as part of Graph Search

2013-01-15T13:48:15-05:00

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Mark Zuckerberg took time out of this morning's presentation to highlight one Graph Search partner in particular: Microsoft Bing. According to the CEO, the company has teamed up with Bing "to show you world class search results for things that don't match your query." It's essentially to supplement Facebook's search results with information that it may not already have as part of its user profiles: weather, music results, and the like. Bing results show up as traditionally-formatted blue web links, standing out clearly from the rest of the Graph Search results.

"We don't think a lot of people will come to Facebook to do web searches," Zucke …

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Facebook ‘Graph Search’ mines a billion people with a trillion connections, launching today in beta

2013-01-15T13:09:27-05:00

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Facebook has announced that it's improving its search experience with "Graph Search," a new way to search between Facebook's massive amount of photos, people, and connections that Mark Zuckerberg says is "not web search." The new tool is designed to find specific pieces of content from a precise query, rather than web search, which returns general responses to a general query. "Web search and graph search are really, really different," he says. In order to provide answers in an intuitive way, Graph Search will use a series of filters that look a bit like an advanced tagging system, allowing it to sort things like relationships, interests, an …

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Can Facebook bring the magic back?

2013-01-14T17:34:02-05:00

Mark Zuckerberg serious

We'll be live blogging Facebook's event tomorrow starting at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. Check it out here!

There's no numerical evidence that Facebook has "lost its cool," but you can feel it. You hear people talking about it. Instead of seeing Facebook blue illuminating the phones of fellow subway and bus riders, you see Instagram or Snapchat or Twitter. Facebook has become a normal thing - a "social utility" everyone uses but few are excited about. Tomorrow morning Facebook is hosting a big event at its Menlo Park headquarters, the first event of its scale in ages, and an opportunity to rejuvenate itself after a string of misfires focused more on …

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