Facebook launches 'Graph Search' new robust search feature

Graph Search is available now in a very limited beta programme only to people in US who use Facebook in English.

The rollout will be gradual, starting with a very small number of users.

Graph Search has been the main focus of Facebook's search team for more than a year now, but the project's origin goes back much further than that.

In Facebook's early days, people could search for basic information like friends, groups, and events, but the systems that powered these searches weren't comprehensive, nor were they able to scale with the site's explosive growth.

As people shared more and more content, Facebook saw a need to give them better ways to explore and enjoy those stories and memories. Graph Search will appear as a bigger search bar at the top of each page.

When users search for something, that search not only determines the set of results they get, but also serves as a title for the page.

Users can edit the title - and in doing so create their own custom view of the content they and their friends have shared on Facebook. The first version of Graph Search focuses on four main areas - people, photos, places, and interests.