Facebook Graph Search is an amazing feature with a terrible name. It takes the massive, inordinate amount of personal information and experiences you’ve charted over the years, and pulls them up with a few keystrokes. Watch it in action.
https://gizmodo.com/facebook-just-declared-war-on-google-meet-your-new-sea-5976014
Although Graph Search isn’t as speedy as I’d like—not as smooth as Google—the thing is still a beta. It’s also a massively intensive process, scouring piles of data you didn’t even know existed. But speediness aside, it’s a ton of fun. Put aside utility for a moment.
Open Graph gives you a new way to reflect on yourself online, and for a billion vain Internet denizens, a new way to self-obsess (or hey, even self-examine) is tremendous. Timeline made your Facebook life beautiful. Now Open Graph is starting to feed it directly into your brainpan. This is a nostalgia crack pipe.
And, sure, it’s useful—I can’t imagine many people clicking around the Facebook cosmos when they can just search through it instead, and looking up restaurants ranked by social popularity at least feels more reassuring than just Googling it. If that feeling lasts—and proves to translate into better times IRL—then Google, Yelp, and Foursquare have ever reason to quiver.
But this thing lacks authority right now. Search is only going to be as good as your friends make it: if your pals only use Foursquare to check in, your geo-results won’t be as meaningful. And until Facebook gives you a reason to start ditching all these side services, Graph Search isn’t going to be what it could be—we’re going to fully assimilate if we want this thing to be really incredible. And that’s also a problem.
But don’t forget that this is the beginning of something that’s enormously important to Facebook. Graph Search will suck in as much of your online existence—Spotify, Seamless, Instagram, Twitter—as possible. Just give it time, and it will consume.
