Facebook’s Graph Search: What is it?
Derrick Saenz, Technology Coordinator and Reporter
February 27, 2013
Filed under News
Facebook has announced a new service that will be added into its colossal social network: Graph Search. However, without a formal, public introduction, no one will know what it is, and they will get confused when they use it. Hopefully this explanation will remove confusion.
Graph Search was released for BETA in January 2013. As of now there has not been an official release date for the world to access the service. At first sight, Facebook Graph Search seems to allow its users to look for their interests through their friends’ mutual interests. So, through your friends, you can find the best of your interests. However, that is not the case. You search for specific criteria through Graph Search. When you search through graph search, you don’t only look for the interests of friends, but you also see the interests of other, probably random, people. The people you search are tons of people that have a Facebook and have the specifications that you desired. For example, if for some peculiar reason you are searching for a straight female that likes chess and comes from Kansas, you will probably find some people that fall under your search measures. (More examples can be found here.)
This is perfect for friends that you think you know have a Facebook, but whose usernames you do not know. Now, if you know their interests and wants, you can search for them and you can contact them from there. However, this is also good for, gee, I don’t know, stalkers or predators that want to find someone to “love” or bother. This places particular people with attractive profile photos, at a higher risk of being harassed by predators. So beware if you suddenly begin to receive tons of friend requests or messages.
When asked about Facebook’s Graph Search, students at King responded.
First, Darren, a Junior at King, was interviewed. He said that Facebook Graph Search was a “very innovative way of being able to interact with others”, but that was before he was told that it might compromise one’s privacy. Once Darren was informed of that, he said he was “kind of worried. You never know who is trying to find you.” If he was able to give a suggestion to Facebook, he would have said to get people to “have an option if you want to be searched”. All in all, he says the facebook is getting boring, as of now, and he thinks that Graph Search will only make Facebook better.
However, Wesley, a freshman at King, thought otherwise. He said “There is not much of a point, since there is a lot of people” You won’t be able to find the specific person you want to find since there are so many people on Facebook. He would suggest that only people that don’t have their privacy settings to something personal can be found. Wesley did not think that many people would use it because they are just not used to it. He does not think it is a good move made by Facebook, since it would be useless on Facebook.
Both people interviewed agreed to the terms that their quotes will be post on KKR and they both did not know of Facebook Graph Search until the interview.
Loading ...