Look out Google: Facebook’s tweaking its search function

Facebook is tweaking its somewhat limited search tools today, by offering a new feature that lets users see all the searches they’ve made within the social networking service.

It’s a small step, but it comes soon after CEO Mark Zuckerberg told an audience at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference that Facebook has longterm plans to build out its search capabilities – which is widely seen as a potential competitive challenge to the search mavens at Google.

The new feature will be rolled out gradually to users in coming weeks.  It’s part of Facebook’s Activity Log, which lets users review and  to some extent edit a record of their activity on the social network.  In a brief announcement, Facebook said users will be able to see their search history and delete searches from the log.

Facebook notes that no else can see a user’s Activity Log.  And while Google offers somewhat similar capabilities, some might say the ability to edit your own private search history isn’t all that useful.

But if Facebook is letting users track records of their own searches, it seems likely that the company might also use that data to improve its own search engine or other features.  UPDATED:  In a statement, a spokesperson said, “We don’t share details on our search or news feed systems.”

Even though many people only use the Facebook search function to look for other people, Zuckerberg has said he sees “a big opportunity” to offer expanded search ability for products or businesses.  Facebook already serves up user recommendations in the form of “sponsored stories” and it’s possible the company could do even more to combine search results and  recommendations.

Facebook currently handles 1 billion search queries a day, Zuckerberg said last week, “and we’re basically not even trying.”

Brandon Bailey (143 Posts)

Brandon Bailey covers Google, Facebook and Yahoo for the San Jose Mercury News, reporting on the business and culture of the Internet.