How To Search Facebook?

How reliable is Facebook Graph Search?

• I got Facebook graph search today and when I search things one thing that I noted is this. The search results are generated from the things people like, the places people have been, from the movies people have watched etc. And one of the main ways Facebook gets money is from sponsored stories and helping pages to get more likes. Let's take an example : I like Shop A's Facebook page from a sponsored story and I've never even to shop A. And when my friend searches places that his friends like,  the search results will show that I like Shop A. Without even knowing how good or bad that place really is. So looking a situation like this is it how far can we trust the results of graph search? when compared to Google?

• Answer:

  I think there's two issues that need solving: 1. The value of a like: as you rightly mention, graph search is largely based on the likes of people which in itself might not be the best starting point. There are campaigns to create likes, there's no dislike, ... I think Facebook will tackle this step by step. Already you can rate places you've visited on a 5-star ranking, which can significantly improve the data used. 2. Absolute versus relative: right now when you compare two searches (eg. restaurant in Paris liked by people who live in Paris vs. restaurants in Paris liked by people who live in London) you will see the same restaurants pop up in a slightly different order. This is because these specific restaurants have far more likes in total than other restaurants. It's good to see overall popularity, but not popularity for individual searches. When Facebook compares a graph search with their overall metrics leading to a relative ranking, I think these results will become much more interesting.