Has there been some frustration when attempting to find older posts made in Facebook? That should be coming to an end as Facebook announced new means of searching for older posts on the app.
The new search function test is rolling out for some mobile users and should streamline the process of finding a specific post and reduce the amount of time needed to do so on the social network.
While Facebook is now testing mobile search for some users, it introduced the search service last year for some desktop users in beta. The new features will allow users to find posts from friends by using keywords as well as content from any page they may be following.
Not all desktop users have been able to access the "Graph Search" function since it was rolled out last year and it was not made available for mobile devices. This should change that and streamline the ability to find the information a user wants, whether on the desktop or a smartphone or tablet. Facebook has been scaling Graph Search since it was rolled out to include posts and status updates, not just profile content.
"We're testing an improvement to search on mobile," a Facebook spokeswoman said. "In this test you can use keywords to search for posts you're in the audience for on Facebook."
However, there appear to be concerns that the new feature will be an end to what analysts say is "privacy by obscurity." This would mean that any post or comment made by a user would be accessible to all.
"In other words, everything a user wrote on Facebook wouldn't just move down the Timeline and News Feed until it was long forgotten by you and others -- it would now be easily retrievable. Forever," writes the analyst.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called search a multiyear voyage for the company as it attempts to make using the social network easier and more functional for day-to-day use, including finding those posts that a user specifically wants, much like searching one's email for a specific email.
The announcement of the new search option comes as Google has discontinued its function that allowed users to search for authorship in searches, Tech Times reports. John Mueller of Google Webmaster Tools posted on Google+ that the search company will no longer be displaying authorship in Google Search. That means data on content from specific authors is going to be more difficult to discover.
Google believes that authorship searches took away from the quality of the search results and by ending the option it should allow users to have better results when they are looking for something specific.
It could be a huge moment for Facebook to enter the search sector, and while it will be functioning on only Facebook, if successful, it could be a litmus test for future companies to look at enabling unique and more in depth search possibilities for users.
