Facebook Rolls Out Revolutionary Graph Search but is Privacy an Issue?

Starting Monday, Facebook users in the United States will have access to the social media network's new search engine called Graph Search, ABC News reported.

The new search tool was designed for more specific searches that would yield specific results. It is meant for finding precise information quickly and efficiently. For example, "friends of mine who like Italian food," would combine a number of different factors and deliver search results.

"Web search is designed to take any open-ended query and give you links that might have answers," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a January press conference announcing the new search engine's beta version. "Graph Search is designed to take a precise query and give you an answer, rather than links that might provide an answer."

Graph Search does not operate like Google or Bing and it does not mean to compete with them. It is Facebook's own way of making it easier for a user to find an old photo on a friend's page, or a specific page one, or a number, of a user's friends "likes." The tool is designed to search photos, "likes," people and places, but Facebook is currently working on making status updates and comments searchable, as well as developing the mobile component.

"Graph Search isn't Web search. We aren't duplicating what Bing does and what Google does, but rather we are making things easier for people to find on Facebook," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said at the All Things D conference earlier this summer.

Having easier access to a user's information new and old does bring up some security concerns. While your information may be protected from non-friends, information your friends have shared on their pages may be searchable by other users. Facebook is also planning a privacy and security update to go along with the wide release.

According to the New York Times, Facebook said graph searches will only bring up information a user wishes to disclose. Its actual security and privacy features will not truly be known until it launches and a high volume of people begin to use it.

Search Engine Land founder Danny Sullivan told the New York Times that Facebook's search engine could begin a new era in online searching.

While Google and Bing show users information from strangers, Sullivan said, Facebook "is potentially promising us the ability to search the knowledge of our friends."