Improved Search Features Makes Facebook Posts Easier to Find

The search features of a popular social network site are being updated to make posts easier to find. The update is beginning to roll out to Facebook’s website and iOS and Android apps now, the company says.

Facebook users will see three major improvements in search once it hits live. This includes the personalized search suggestions which has the ability to search posts shared publicly or by friends and the ability to search for what people are saying about specific topics.

In the previous iteration, entering a search term would turn up results for pages, people, groups, events, apps or trending topics. This was quite useful and handy if you were searching for something specific — a fan page perhaps, for your favorite TV show, — however, it becomes less helpful if you were trying to search for more general info, like a discussion of the latest episode or fan theory.

With the new updates and changes, Facebook will surface personalized suggestions to help you find exactly what you’re looking for when you begin a search.

Popular and trending topics will also be highlighted in the search, to make it easier to follow topics in real-time. Furthermore, you now have the power to see individual Facebook posts as they are now surfaced in search results. For instance, a search for your favorite TV show may surface posts from friends who have also shared their thoughts on the latest episode.

In the same way you can use search to have an overview on what others are saying about popular topics and viral posts. Tom Stocky, the company’s VP of Search wrote in a statement saying, “When a link gets shared widely on Facebook, it often anchors an interesting public conversation.”

“Now there’s a new way to quickly dive into that discussion. With one tap, you can find public posts about a link, see popular quotes and phrases mentioned in these posts, and check out an aggregate overview of sentiment.”

The search results will respect your existing privacy settings and won’t show anything that wasn’t already available to friends and this is what Facebook noted. With that being said, it can’t hurt to revisit your current settings, or perhaps change who can see posts you’ve previously shared since the new search features will make your posts a lot easier for others to find. It is good to hear that Facebook is listening to fan and user feedback with their updates.