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
What publishers are wishing for this holiday season: End AI scraping and determine AI-powered audience value
Publishers want a fair, structured, regulated AI environment and they also want to define what the next decade of audience metrics looks like.
Media giant Essence launches a marketplace for Black women-led brands
Essence has launched WeLoveUs.shop, a new online marketplace dedicated to Black women-led brands.
In Graphic Detail: The state of AI referral traffic in 2025
The stats reveal a new audience pipeline forming outside of traditional search and social platforms.