This past December, Facebook severed ties with Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, in favour of its own new-and-improved Graph Search, re-branded as Facebook Search.
The information that Graph Search returned was largely based on information from your profile. Facebook Search now lets you search your and your friends’ old posts for keyword-based updates, links, pictures, comments, and videos. The updates to Facebook Search mean that it’s easier for you — and your friends — to unearth those posts from five or 10 years ago, for better or for worse. Facebook Search has also extended to mobile after nearly two years in beta.
The important thing about Facebook Search is that it tries to give you results related to the context of your search terms. Read Social Media Examiner‘s “How to Use Facebook Graph Search“.
Also important is know is how this new search affects your privacy settings. Facebook Search doesn’t change any of your privacy settings, and it won’t let others find your posts unless you’ve explicitly shared something with them. For example, if you set the audience of a photo album to a particular friends list, only the people on that list will see those pictures in search results. Conversely, if you set your privacy settings for some posts to public, anyone who searches for it could find it. It’s important to note, too, that if you’re tagged in a friend’s update or photo, you could appear in their friends’ searches, as well.
Here are five ways you can review your content and adjust your Facebook Search privacy settings. (Source: Kristin Burnham, InformationWeek.com’s Senior Editor)