After revisiting its privacy policies and settings several times in a few months, Facebook is now turning its attention to deepening its search feature.
Enhancements to search make it easier to track down "posts that have been shared with you," according to a blog post by Tom Stocky, VP of search at Facebook.
"You've told us the most important thing is being able to find posts you've seen before, and now you can," states Stocky. "With a quick search, you can get back to a fun video from your graduation, a news article you've been meaning to read, or photos from your friend's wedding last summer."
In using the word 'post' Stocky means any post visible to an individual -- that could be content shared solely with one person or left open for the entire public to see. So posts buried under years of timeline posts can be recalled through a keyword associated with the content or by individuals who stumble on them while searching out something else.
While anyone searching for an old Facebook post could always use a third-party search engine to find the content -- Google works amazingly well -- the social network's updated search turns up results with the user in mind.
"If you want to search using phrases like 'My friends who live in New York,' you still can," Stocky states. "Your search results are personalized and unique to you and, as always, you can only see things that have been shared with you."
Now that Facebook's search just got much more intimate and effective, it's a good time for users to put into practice some privacy skills the social networking site has been lecturing users on for the last few months.
For those who skipped out on Facebook's series of Privacy symposiums, the social network still bears a feature that can change the visibility of old posts en masse.
Under the Privacy Shortcuts option, the padlock icon on Facebook's blue banner, the "See More Settings" gives users access to the Privacy Settings and Tools menu. Inside of the menu's "Who can see my old stuff?" pane, there's the option to "Limit Past Posts."
The Limit Past Posts option can change the visibility of old posts from public and "friends of friends," to friends only. And, of course, users can always go back can change the visibility of each of their posts manually.
