Facebook on Monday began rolling out a tool for US English language users to mine the social network’s trove of experiences for anything from restaurant choices to photos of far-off places.<\/p>\n
Facebook said that a “graph search” feature that it has tested since early this year is making a broader debut at its website and that a version tailored for smartphone and tablet applications is in the works.<\/p>\n
“Everyone using US English should start seeing their search box automatically updated,” the California-based social network said in a blog post.<\/p>\n
“This is just the beginning,” the post said. “We’re currently working on making it easier for people to search and discover topics, including posts and comments.”<\/p>\n
Graph search is designed to take straightforward questions and find answers by tapping into users’ circles of friends as well as any public posts at the leading social network.<\/p>\n
Typing “friends in San Francisco” in a graph search box atop a Facebook page will bring up members in the user’s circle who have made it known that they live in the City by the Bay.<\/p>\n
But the feature was intended to be more sophisticated. The query, for example, can be enhanced to seek “Indian restaurants liked by friends in San Francisco who are from India.”<\/p>\n
Such a prompt generates a results page showing Facebook friends who have indicated they are from India along with restaurants that they “liked” and the respective eateries’ pages at the social network.<\/p>\n
Users can also perform searches based on categories, such as which films or music are liked by people of similar age groups or political leanings.<\/p>\n
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