Facebook just made its search a lot better.
With Facebook boasting 1.5 billion searches daily and over 2 trillion posts in its index, the social media company updated its search Thursday, Oct. 22, to include every publicly available post in its archive.
Now, when a breaking news story happens and you rush to Facebook to see what's happening, your search results will be broken down into two different categories — top posts from trusted news organizations and posts from friends and groups.
In typing "Mets World Series" into the search tool — fresh off the New York Mets punching their World Series ticket Wednesday night — you're hit with top post results from the Wall Street Journal and CBS Sportsline, followed by several posts made by your friends or public groups about the Mets.
The latter part of the search was updated by Facebook in hopes to spark public conversations with strangers around the world about shared topics or news stories of interest. Seeing what your circle of friends has to say is one thing, but seeing what the world is saying is another.
"You don't just see what your friends and people around you are saying," Tom Stocky, Facebook's VP of search, told TechCrunch. "You see the stories of people on the ground. It gives us a different level of perspective."
The Silicon Valley tech company also bolstered its search function by offering users timely, personalized suggestions as soon as they start typing within the search box. It even highlights what's happening now as you type, so you can follow popular stories in real time.
