Facebook has officially made it impossible to hide from it.
Starting today, its search bar is now capable of retrieving every public post ever made — that’s 2 trillion of them. It’s a major step in making Facebook’s search tool relevant when finding breaking news and trending topics, two areas dominated by Google and Twitter.
Previously, searching on Facebook would return Pages a user liked or friended. Now it will return basically everything, but displayed in a more organized manner.
For example, searching “Benghazi Committee” pulls up results from people “Involved in This Story” (in this instance, a post from Sen. Harry Reid); “Top Posts” from publishers that I both follow and don’t; and posts from friends. Lastly, there’s a “Public Posts” section that retrieves the “most recent and relevant” messages.
Here’s what it looks like in action:
Facebook users make 1.5 billion searches each days, it says in a blog post, the aim is to make people aware of its capabilities. The social network has an image problem when it comes to search since people don’t turn to it first when it comes to breaking news, and it was difficult to sort through the myriad of results.
Perhaps this will change that perception.
Images via Facebook.
More in Media
How a ‘TikTok doctorate’ made 26-year-old Griffin Johnson a venture capitalist
Griffin Johnson made it big on TikTok back in 2019, now he runs a VC firm and uses his marketing expertise in the Derby world.
Media Briefing: Publishers debate the value of AI licensing and GEO
Publishers may be gaining visibility in AI search, but execs say the lack of traffic and licensing revenue is raising doubts about the payoff.
Meta’s bid to woo creators to Facebook just might work, despite its recent legal woes
Meta’s recent legal woes likely won’t deter creators from trying out its new Facebook Creator Track, according to marketing experts.