Graph Search to Social Search

Facebook is testing a new search tool called Graph Search.  So far only a limited amount of users have access to it.  Graph Search allows Facebook users to search topics like "Photos of me taken with my UGA friends in Athens".  The search will show you personalized results of photos that fit the criteria.  This is a very easy and efficient way to search through Facebook.  This is the start of Facebook entering the social search race.  Both Facebook and Google are battling to see who can use personal information users post on social media sites to make more personalized and relevant search results.  For instance when searching for a sushi restaurant in Atlanta to eat at, Facebook and Google want to be able to display results of places your friends liked or posted about.  Facebook has extensive knowledge of our demographics, likes, interests, and friends information to utilize in a social search.

Google + has not been as effective at getting people to engage in their social media site, but they understand the increased value their search results could provide if they had as much knowledge of our personal lives as Facebook.  Many said Google + failed to create a social media site to compete with Facebook, but Google had a bigger vision to use social media to improve its core search business.  This is just the beginning for search engines creating a social search.  I expect we will see Facebook expand their Graph Search from just searching Facebook to becoming a fully functioning search engine in the next couple years.  There are billions of dollars advertising revenue at stake for whom ever can create the best social search going forward.