So, you’ve just finished going through the much-sought-after fully customisable privacy settings on your Facebook account. I bet you’re feeling pretty safe. Well you shouldn’t be, not even slightly. The latest addition to the social network is a search engine that will give just about anyone the power to lurk to their hearts content.
Graph Search is the new big thing ol’ mate Zuckerberg has added to Facebook, and just like all the other fickle updates coming through as a result of his persistent meddling, no one seems as excited about it as he does. Put simply, Graph Search enables everyone on Facebook to be able to access photos, videos, locations, and even people via an inter-connecting web of key words. As the below video demonstrates, it’s great if you’re looking for friends, or friends of friends who enjoy trail running, but somewhat creepier thinking someone is searching which of their friends enjoys trail running, alone…at night…in secluded areas where no one can hear you scream.
Though ethically, it’s a somewhat dodgy development, in terms of technology it’s more or less groundbreaking. The Zuck seems pretty proud of his invention in an interview with Wired (Via Pedestrian), where he explains that “people use search engines to answer questions”.
He adds, “But we can answer a set of questions that no one else can really answer. All those other services are indexing primarily public information, and stuff in Facebook isn’t out there in the world — it’s stuff that people share. There’s no real way to cut through the contents of what people are sharing, to fulfill big human needs about discovery, to find people you wouldn’t otherwise be connected with. And we thought we should do something about that. We’re the only service in the world that can do that.”
There’s no word yet on what, if anything, can be done to minimise the access suspect individuals can have to your content, but one thing’s for sure…Facebook are clearly a force to be feared. The below video should explain it all..
http://youtu.be/SD951tHz38g
