Facebook Announces Graph Search

Facebook Announces Graph Search
1/16/2012

Background
Facebook has released a new search tool, known as “Graph Search.” This
tool allows users to more quickly find people, photos, interests and places
in their Social Graph.

Users are able to search their social graph to find content and
connections that meet query criteria. Searching can be location-based
queries, such as names, categories, or phrases (for example “my friends
who live in Chicago”, “my friends who like Beyonce”, or “best restaurants
in Brooklyn”). There is now a new manner for pages, places, groups, apps
or games to be discovered.

How it Works

Graph Search will appear as a large search bar at the top of each page,
replacing the former white search bar. A search will both determine the
set of results delivered and serve as a title for the page. The page title can
be edited, in order to create a custom view of content.

Graph Search is not a replacement for standard Web Search (i.e. Google
and Bing). Web Search has been engineered to take a query and come
up with possible results that best match those keywords. By contrast,
Graph Search combines phrases, and only references user’s social graphs.
Results are displayed as visual answers rather than links to information.
Various filters are incorporated in the service, such as place type, liked by,
and visited by friends.

Graph queries can be refined with various filters such as place, type, liked
by, and visited by friends. There is the option to search interests or likes by
geographic location, age or occupation, or video and photo content
from pages your friends like. The search results are ranked by those who
you interact with most, number of mutual connections (in the case of non-
friends), and relevance to the search criteria. Graph search results only

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contain information that has been shared by established connections. All
of the queries take place within Facebook’s privacy settings, so users will
not be able to see any content that they otherwise would not see.

Currently the beta preview of Graph Search is only available to users with
US English settings on desktop. Further rollout of the offering will be
gradual. As the service comes out of private beta and is rolled out to the
public, Facebook likes and check-ins will become even stronger signals to
optimize for, as Facebook’s one trillion connections are what makes the
service truly unique.

Resolution POV:

Graph Search provides a new and interesting way for users to engage on
Facebook, and positions Facebook as not just a social utility but also a
recommendation engine. It is essentially taking the “peer endorsement”
aspect of Facebook to the next level.

As Graph Search is developed, it could warrant a shift in resources to
account for it. However, at this time Graph Search represents no
immediate threat to Google’s dominance in search. While there are
many in the press who have been eager to label this as a Google killer,
there are many reasons to think otherwise, including:
• Queries are clunky and structured, and unlike how people are
used to searching. It remains to be seen whether people will be
willing to change their search behavior.
• Facebook graph search has currently limited reach, as it’s in
limited beta and rolling out slowly. It remains to be seen how
many users will search for businesses versus people, as most of
the demos were for people on Facebook, not businesses
• Google and Bing are both doubling down on social search, so
it’s likely they view it as either a strategic advantage or
something that people enjoy using. While Graph Search seems
to allow for more meaningful social queries (e.g. indian


restaurants friends like who also like indian restaurants I like), it
remains to be seen whether this type of search will be preferred
by the public over the traditional algorithmic web search with
social signals that Google offers.

Reviews have been mostly positive so far, but many analysts (and
Facebook) are concerned about Privacy and Graph Search. There could
be a backlash among Facebook users who aren’t happy that the data
they are sharing is so accessible

Bing results will appear for queries which are currently not indexed under
the Facebook focus on places, people, interests and photos. As more
people use Facebook’s internal search engine as a result of this
announcement, Bing’s market share could increase.

While no immediate action is required by brands, there are SEO and paid
search implications to this announcement.

SEO implications of Facebook’s Graph Search

It is more important than ever to have a Facebook page that’s optimized,
as Graph Search doesn’t search the Web and will not find businesses that
have not made themselves eligible with a Facebook page. The use of
Open Graph protocols is also essential, in order to have greater control
over content that is shared to Facebook .

If your business does have a Facebook page, follow these steps to
optimize for Graph Search:

• Make sure information is up to date in the “About” section,
including website, category and business address since this is
how they will be most easily searchable.
• Use search suggest for keyword research. No keyword tool for
Graph Search has been announced, but autosuggest
currently recommends popular and related queries that


people and businesses can ensure they’ve included on their
profiles and pages, respectively.
• As always, businesses need to attract the right fans and give
fans content that engages them. Number of fans has never
been as important to business as number of relevant,
engaged fans, and this applies to Graph Search ranking as
well.

Facebook likes and shares may not have as strong of a correlation with
Google ranking as links, but are absolutely essential for Graph Search
ranking.

It is vital to have a presence on Google+ now, as social search is already
integrated into Google through Google+, and as search behavior adapts
to Graph Search this type of searching may become more prevalent on
Google. It is also extremely important to implement rel=author and
rel=publisher, as Google’s AuthorRank algorithm is one way that Google
identifies entities/people in search results, which could eventually give
Google Search the ability to process similar queries to Graph Search.

Finally, it is more important than ever to integrate social teams and search
teams and not, as many organizations do, have them working in silos.
Search best practices could make social content more visible and vice
versa.

Summary

Facebook has stated that Graph Search is “just the start to a long-term
investment in improving search”. Facebook will likely look to monetize this
product in the future, possibly through new offerings tied to sponsored
results. There is a wealth of demographic and psychographic information
that marketers will be able to utilize. Graph search is an introduction of
additional intent data, which potentially will become available as
Facebook ad targeting criteria.


However, it’s very clear that Graph Search is still in beta. There is a learning
curve and it will likely take the user some time to integrate Graph Search
into everyday behavior. Privacy is still an overwhelming concern, both to
Facebook and the user.

While it may never take the place of web search, there is a lot of potential
for Graph Search to become hugely valuable in the future. It offers users
an opportunity to discover — discover new ways of searching, discover
new restaurants and even discover new ways of connecting with each
other. Additionally, brand will find new opportunities to measure
engagement and reach their consumers.

For more information, visit the resources below:

http://www.facebook-studio.com/news/item/introducing-graph-search-help-
people-discover-your-business
http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2013/01/15/facebook-explains-how-to-
optimize-your-business-page-for-its-new-graph-search-feature/

http://searchengineland.com/facebook-search-not-google-search-145124
http://battellemedia.com/archives/2013/01/facebook-is-no-longer-flat.php

http://gizmodo.com/5976201/heres-what-using-the-new-facebook-search-looks-
like

For information about Resolution, visit our website:
www.resolutionmedia.com.


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