Facebook has just made its search feature easier to navigate for users who are searching for specific posts, photos or videos on the site. Users can now search for old posts across their account, which include contents that were shared to them by friends and public pages.
The feature is initially available to iPhone and desktop users. Android users may just be able to access the feature anytime soon.
The new Facebook Search works similarly to Google Search. If a user is searching for a particular word and types it on the search bar, he would then see all the posts of his friends containing the keyword.
Knowing the right keyword to type is important in order to yield the best results from a search since Facebook searches rely mostly on keywords in the post. It would be helpful if one has an idea of the exact post or the type of post that one is looking for.
"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," said Facebook in a blog post.
Apart from knowing the right keyword, one must also be able to remember the particular type of post that was shared and the person or group that shared it. An example is when the user is searching for a National Geographic link that was posted by a particular friend. To find the link, the user can type the name of his friend and the words "National Geographic" into the search bar.
Search results are displayed in random order as opposed to chronological. This may need some patience in scrolling down the page to find the post that one is searching for. However, the user can tweak the type of results that would appear by indicating whether he's searching for posts, pages, group events, photos or apps.
While it is true that Facebook has made its search feature more user-friendly, it doesn't mean that the user's privacy settings are ignored during the process. If a post or photo is posted or shared privately among friends, only these friends can see the post when they search for it.
"Your search results are personalized and unique to you and, as always, you can only see things that have been shared with you," explained the social networking site.
The Facebook Search update is only available to users whose Facebook accounts are set in U.S. English. If the user's account is set in UK English, he can just change it to U.S. English in order to start checking the new feature.
