The facebook search graph will mean a great repositioning of search engines and what type of data they search for. Facebook has built itself up to where at this juncture it is a phonebook. The one thing missing with facebook has always been robust search functions and this new update release corrects that.
The big benefactor of the search graph though will be the bigger companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, Proctor & Gamble, large consumer product conglomerates with googols of fans, likes, and interactions by which patterns can be defined. The search graph provides a large data pool to target products to and its high time for some better targeted ads.
How the facebook search graph will work.
For users, (you and me), this new feature will allow us to search for people based on more relevant variables such as geography, photos, interests, places they've visited etc. But more deeper the way by which you can search for this information. The search graph will take full sentences such as:
Search for friends of friends who are women, single and live in Palo Alto.
Show photos of my friends took in 3 years ago
Show me movies my friends in Dallas have watched
Of the people who voted for Obama, what music do they listen to (will tie in Spotify data and any other music social app data you have connected to facebook)
Companies with fan pages will be able to glean deeper isights and more accurately -though this might not be available to every company- target their advertising to individuals based on constants, e.g., target everyone with who voted for Romney and likes the beatles, with ‘x' advertisement. With this type of targeting, the marketing model is further tightened, unknowns variables can be better isolated, relevant advertisements will more likely show up for the next time you login.
Upon full roll out the social graph will only parse photos, likes, and posts.
For more details on the new search graph from Facebook visit http://www.facebook.com/about/graphsearch/privacy
