uFacebook Testing In-App Search Engine Powered By Users’ Postsr

4 4 4 9

• 

  (Raymond Bryson)

  For those moments when it’s just too much work to copy a link on your phone’s web browser, open up the Facebook app and hit “paste,” the social network is now testing out an “add link” option that uses an in-app search engine.

  The keyword search pulls up sites and articles to add to your status updates, with a link symbol added along the bottom row of current options like adding a photo or tagging friends in post.

  The “Add a Link” option is being tested on a small group in the U.S., with results apparently sorted by what users are most likely going to share or highlighting things that are trending on Facebook.

  “We’re piloting a new way to add a link that’s been shared on Facebook to your posts and comments,” Facebook said in confirming the test to TechCrunch, adding that the company has already indexed over one trillion posts to let people search for links that have been shared with them.

  So let’s say your mom’s best friend from high school posted a link from her local newspaper about a traveling kitten circus (made that up but I want it to be real) and your mom clicked “Like” on it. If you use the in-app search engine looking for “kittens,” you could get that result over some other non-relevant kitten information you might find with that query on Google or Bing.

  Of course along with the ability to search for news on Facebook comes the fact that Facebook will k now what you’re interested in posting an sharing, as well as your friends if they respond to your post. That’s the kind of user information that keeps Facebook rolling in advertising revenue as well as a repository of valuable data about its users.

  Skip Googling With Facebook’s New “Add A Link” Mobile Status Search Engine [TechCrunch]

  
• 
  

ribbi

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist