Why Facebook's 'Graph Search' shouldn't catch you by surprise

If you haven't already heard, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed 'Graph Search' to the public early on Tuesday. There's even a flashy, animated page on Facebook that introduces users to the new service, promising you'll be able to "Find more of what you're looking for through your friends and connections." Go ahead, click the "Try a Search" button. 

However, unlike the infamous Timeline, which Facebook users were forced to switch to last year on December 22nd if they hadn't already, 'Graph Search' won't be nearly as surprising. 'Graph Search' essentially aims to connect you with a digital network that you're already a part of but never had the opportunity to fully explore. You'll be able to type in something like, "Photos of my friends in Los Angeles", or, "Friends that work at my company who like horror movies"-- stuff like that. 

Optimized discovery

You might be thinking to yourself, "Shouldn't this feature have been implemented already?" It's just a search feature, after all. And you're probably right, too. All of the information that will be available through 'Graph Search' is already available to you now-- but your searches won't be nearly as efficient or exciting as they will be through the new 'Search.' Say you wanted to find friends that also like your favorite band. Well, you can right now: just go to your favorite band's Facebook page and you can easily spot which of your friends also liked their page. Not bad, right? On the other hand, though, you won't be able to discover which of those friends lives near you unless you click through to their profiles and sift for that information yourself. 

'Graph Search' is just optimized discovery. But people are already worried about privacy (as they should be). When 'Graph Search' rolls out publicly, detailed history of your entire Facebook profile will be available to your friends (and, depending on your privacy settings, anyone who logs into Facebook) with a quick search inquiry. Suddenly, all your friends know that you 'Liked' some cheesy boy band you thought were cool five or six years ago. 

How embarrassing!

... Not. First of all, you can delete anything you want. Here's what Nicky Jackson Colaco, Public Policy Manager at Facebook, has to say about the subject, "Just to clarify, anything you delete from the site is deleted. Activity Log is really the place [to delete content]. It’s a summary of you on Facebook.” So, when you go sifting through your profile to make sure future employers don't see how much time you spend sifting through spam-laden Facebook pages that promise to reveal never-before-seen nude pics of celebrities, just make sure you delete content via your Activity Log. 

Bing to the rescue?

"But even if I delete a post or a like from my Activity Log, somebody out there will still be able to see it, right?" Wrong. 

Facebook's Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg considered working with Google on search, but privacy concerns with the Internet search giant ceased and potential collaboration from moving forward. Instead, Facebook opted for Bing to power parts of 'Graph Search' that Facebook's internal services wouldn't be able to handle. Microsoft's Bing Team the collaboration in a company blog post on Tuesday:

“As part of this [Graph Search] product, our two engineering teams worked together to advance a unified search experience. That means that when people want to search beyond Facebook, they see web search results from Bing with social context and additional information such as Facebook pages.

To the Facebook user, they will not only see useful results, but we think have serendipitous experiences. Imagine searching for Jay-Z concerts on Facebook, and not only finding Facebook content, but also web results from Bing including concert tickets, news about the tour and other web results—annotated with Facebook Likes and Shares. We think this is a powerful combination.”

Bing will be all over it, okay, we get it. 

Here's where Zuckerberg's choice over Google really matters: Google wouldn't allow Facebook to de-list content that users had changed to private. As Bloomberg Business Week reported: 

“When asked why the company was not working with Google, Zuckerberg said that previous discussions collapsed over Google’s unwillingness to accommodate Facebook’s privacy needs. For example, he said, Facebook wants its search engine partners to remove certain pieces of content from its index, such as photos, when its users change the privacy setting.”

That's a big deal. Facebook users can rest easy, knowing that their details on Facebook can be deleted-- and for good.

An onslaught of un-liking

We all know that, with Facebook, the product being sold isn't the service we receive. We are, quite literally, the product being sold. Facebook has been advertising's dream come true since its public release on February 4th, 2004. According to Steve Cheney, an engineer and entrepreneur, "For the past several years big advertisers on FB have actually been directing massive amounts of paid media to acquire fans. They quite literally bought likes."

Why? Because much of what keeps Facebook's value high in the stock market is the fact that every time someone likes a brand's page, all of their friends will see that he or she liked that brand on their newsfeed! And all it takes is one measly, little click.

He says that, for reasons previously stated, "the link between query intent and your social interactions for interests and aplces is much weaker than FB wants you to believe." He adds that much of the stored data on Facebook is actually "dirty"-- not in the traditional sense but rather that much of the data is "totally irrelevant" and old. 

Out of the thousands of 'Like' buttons you've clicked over the years, how many of them can you truly still stand behind anyways?

Steve Cheney makes a salient point: 

"That the mainstream population who live inside FB day in and day out expect more out of the service without paying is in a word... fitting. After all, FB users are NOT Facebook's customers. The advertisers are. YES, Amex and Coke and the advertisers are Facebook's customers, not you!"

At best, 'Graph Search' will be a boon for advertisers and users alike, I think. After all, doesn't anybody remember what Cleveland Brown from Family Guy has to say on the subject? He's sitting in Peter Griffin's living room, just watching TV, when somebody (I think Brian) complains about how there are too many commercials. But Cleveland cleverly responds, "I like commercials! They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on research so they know exactly what you want to see a commercial for! It's like they do the shopping for you!"

So, not only should you remove all those embarrassing details from your Facebook Activity Log, but you should obviously unlike everything you no longer like too. 

'Graph Search' today

Facebook's new product for social discovery won't be ready for awhile. Tom Stocky and Lars Rasmussen, product leads on 'Graph Search,' told CNET that the "rollout will take months, not weeks." Stocky said the "slow rollout is so that people can get used to this new world." 

If you want, though, you can join the waiting list for being a beta tester by clicking the green button at the bottom of the 'Graph Search' intro page.