Facebook Search is back and ready to consume your daily dose of search.  This morning as I did what most of us do, I skipped the morning coffee, walked past the newspaper and clicked my way on to Facebook to get my morning news… Most of that is sarcasm, with the exception of Facebook.

As I powered up for the day, I was presented with a “search option” and a few key points as to how I can now use Facebook to search the more than 2 trillion posts and data points available in the Facebook universe.

Curious, I snapped a screen shot and started to run a few searches to test the waters. Rather than searching the presidential debates I took a stab at Engineers, because well, that’s what we do.

Here are my findings:

The notice that I can now search more than 2 trillion posts and news updates

As Facebook made the kind suggestion to search the king of pop, I opted for to take a run at the software engineers waiting for our calls.

Facebook_Search_1

Here are my first 2 attempts at running basic searches to see if I can dig up a few people talking about “Software Engineering”  You can see the searches below, highlighted in red.

Search 1:

“I am a” “software engineer” “new job” ::  The idea behind this search was basic. I want to identify people saying that they are a software engineer and mention the phrase “new job” in that same conversation.

Results:

Taking a look at Jamil’s posting in red, you can see that he mentions a job that he started just four months ago. Also, he states that he is not happy indicating he may be looking for a new job. Comparing this back to the original Graph Search just a year ago, the results are were strong.  The advantage to me with the new search feature is that I see posts from the general public outside of my little world of Facebook friends. This includes news feeds, postings, status updates, group messages and events.

Facebook_search_3

Search 2:

“I am a” “software engineer.”

Results:

The results on the first search returned accurate results. As I scrolled through, I noticed that most results were targeted but did not stray too far into the land of suggestions, which I’d expect to change as the feature matures into a full system search tool.  What I searched is what I got. The second search was scaled back only to mention the job title and the phrase “I am a”. This search worked well across many different job titles (substituting for engineer, administrator and analyst) and seemed to pick up more results based on Facebook groups in place of person profiles.

Facebook_serach_2

Conclusion: My thoughts on the new Facebook Search

Here are a few key points to consider as the new Facebook search grows:

  • The new Facebook search is solid, but not yet great for recruiters. Searches provide strong results, but they are not laser targeted. Basic search works better than any blown out Boolean search you will itch to enter.
  • As the new Facebook search feature matures, I’d expect we’d see a serious contender for search, news and mindless time wasting activity. This will, in fact, eat into millions of offsite search queries once dedicated to a “Google Search.”
  • You have access to all 2 trillion posts, updates, status updates, groups and events and that is powerful
  • With that, you can expect to be smacked in the face with re-targeted ad placements and more scary “Facebook is stealing your data” posts that you can recopy into your status updates.

In all, I’m a fan. Let’s see where this takes us.

See the Facebook Search Demo

[vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/143213455″ width=”500″ height=”300″]

About the Author

Ryan_Leary_HeadshotRyan Leary is COO of RecruitingDaily and is responsible for driving technology and innovation in to the recruiting community. Ryan helps create the processes, ideas and innovation that drives the community at RecruitingDaily. He’s our in-house expert for anything related to sourcing, tools or technology. A lead gen and brand buzz building machine, he is the force behind the marketing automation process for some of the industries top fortune brands and some of the most progressive start ups in our space.

Connect with Ryan on:   Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or RecruitingBlogs

Recruiting Tools
How-To Video
By Ryan Leary

Ryan Leary helps create the processes, ideas and innovation that drives RecruitingDaily. He’s our in-house expert for anything related to sourcing, tools or technology. A lead generation and brand buzz building machine, he has built superior funnel systems for some of the industries top HR Tech and Recruitment brands. He is a veteran to the online community and a partner here at RecruitingDaily.