We Got A Look At Facebook's New Graph Search-Here's How It Works

Owen Thomas, Business InsiderFacebook struggled with naming its new search feature, fearing that anything with "search" in the name would make people think of a Web search engine like Google.

After playing with Graph Search, we can see why naming the product was so hard.

This is not Google Web search—it's something completely different.

Instead of searching the Web based on keywords, Graph Search looks at your connections and interests to come up with relevant results for people, photos, places, and interests. These are generally results for which a Web search would come up empty—like "places I visited in 2010" or "photos of my friends taken before 1980" or "restaurants my friends like."

The interface strongly guides users to doing these kinds of searches, responding with plain-English suggestions for questions.

Facebook is calling the feature "beta," which is a technology-industry way of saying it's not finished with its development and there may be bugs or strange behavior.

You most likely won't have access to Graph Search right away, as Facebook is rolling out very slowly, but you can request access to the beta right here.