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Introducing Graph Search

facebook.com

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Re: Introducing Graph Search

#211

Post by gambomb »

Irregardless wrote: post #89
simonsarris wrote: post #53

This is an important step for Facebook and I'm surprised no one has really mentioned it (all ~50 comments so far are about the graph search). The big thing here isn't graph search, or the fancy searching per se. The big thing here is this: > "and meet new people, too." This is huge. Huge! Facebook from the start was envisioned as a sort-of dating platform but that part of it got swept under the rug real quick. Throug…

> This is huge. Huge! Quite the opposite, in my opinion. People don't like being bothered by strangers on Facebook. It's weird and creepy, especially so when it's a guy contacting a girl. This could be seen as a disincentive to share if you don't want your face popping up on search results for people outside your immediate network. It also makes friends who are ignorant or careless about privacy more of a liability.…

>People don't like being bothered by strangers on Facebook

This is true, however the fact that you can search friends of friends means you can look for people you might want to get to know better, and get introduced via your mutual friend. Or be bold and just send them a friend request with a little note, etc.

A friend of a friend is less of a random person than the current facebook search which is actually random.

Obviously it will be abused by some, however I think it is a pretty big deal as a feature

Re: Introducing Graph Search

#212

Post by cfqycwz »

I think this has really interesting consequences in combination with the "pay money to send messages to people you aren't friends with" feature Facebook's been testing lately. That's the revenue potential I immediately saw in this product with the demo search for "people who like cycling in my hometown"--you can find them for free, but it will cost you to contact (or direct market to) them.

Re: Introducing Graph Search

#213

Post by tejaswiy »

DannyBee wrote: post #39
_pius wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook can solve this algorithmically without you needing to have a "clean social graph" or write complex queries to exclude your grandmother.

Proof? Most of these algorithms build models that do affinity weighting, and then try to guess at how the same some other person is as me (which is hard across such a variety of attributes). There is no magic, so please explain the math/algorithms you think would work here. (Sorry, it's just a lot of people wave the magic "algorithm" flag when faced with hard problems)

Their "Close friends" algorithm does a pretty good job already. And even if it doesn't I'm sure most people have already removed / added friends as appropriate from that circle.

Facebook also has a bunch of data on how often you've interacted with various friends there .. so that could be one data point. (How often you're tagged in a check-in / photo, how often you've liked a post made by someone else etc.)

Your Your mom / dad / school friends generally may not be a good data point, while your college friends might be.

It'll take a lot of beta testing and tweaking, but I think it can be done.

Re: Introducing Graph Search

#214

Post by plg »

problems:

1. it treats data from all friends (presumably) equally. Presumably in real life you weigh opinions of different friends differently.

2. search can only take place on information that your friends are willing to share publicly (or at least with all their "friends"). Presumably in real life opinions you get from people you know will be way different if they know it is a private exchange.

3. isn't this all a bit high on the autism spectrum? The idea that to find out information about the likes and dislikes of your "friends", you log onto a computer and do what amounts to a database search, rather than just ASK YOUR FRIENDS ???

Re: Introducing Graph Search

#215

Post by loceng »

simonsarris wrote: post #53

This is an important step for Facebook and I'm surprised no one has really mentioned it (all ~50 comments so far are about the graph search). The big thing here isn't graph search, or the fancy searching per se. The big thing here is this: > "and meet new people, too." This is huge. Huge! Facebook from the start was envisioned as a sort-of dating platform but that part of it got swept under the rug real quick. Throug…

Though I don't trust Facebook.

Re: Introducing Graph Search

#216

Post by angryasian »

gradys wrote: post #109
DannyBee wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Proof? Most of these algorithms build models that do affinity weighting, and then try to guess at how the same some other person is as me (which is hard across such a variety of attributes). There is no magic, so please explain the math/algorithms you think would work here. (Sorry, it's just a lot of people wave the magic "algorithm" flag when faced with hard problems)

Well, Facebook can tell how often you interact with certain people. They can determine certain things about the content of those interactions. They can detect how similar your friend graph is to another person's. They know that your grandma is your grandma (if you have told them, of course), and they know, for example, that most people don't want to hang out with their grandma. I haven't given you pseudocode for an a…

without you telling explicitly who you want food recommendations from or tech product recommendations from its an incredibly difficult problem. Just because you talk to someone everyday doesn't mean you want their opinion on food or tv shows.

Re: Introducing Graph Search

#217

Post by angryasian »

phwd wrote: post #15

I'm torn. On one side I really like it, it reminds me of the old People Search feature Facebook used to have. On the other side for third party developers especially those who try to make the Facebook experience better, I'm afraid this is reinforcing the point you should not build 100% on platforms. I'm sure there are many who have had this idea or are building this currently. Facebook Heroku templates given for new…

in your example, look how difficult it is for a company like netflix that has just about every movie you've seen and rated along with everyone else's. Along with friends lists. Now take Facebook who is trying to apply this generalization along multiple categories. Its going to be very difficult to get right.

Re: Introducing Graph Search

#218

Post by angryasian »

lesinski wrote: post #194
marknutter wrote: post #189

Here's what Facebook doesn't get. I have 580 friends on Facebook. These are all people I've met in real life at least once. I care, honestly, about maybe 50 of them. And of those I care about, I want to know what's going on in maybe 10 of those 50 friends' lives. Ask my how much I care about people who aren't friends with me on Facebook. About as much as I care about anybody on the internet on any site.

Actually, that's what's great about Facebook: they probably already know who those 10-50 friends are based on your activity on the site, your location, your photos. They know your best friends based on your actions versus who you might list if they asked you who your best friends are -- which might be a more accurate way of figuring it out anyway.

yeah but out of those 50 you may only want 10 that are knowledgeable about food, and in the greater 500 list you may want 10 that are knowledgeable about tech. Just because you're close to someone doesn't you mean you value their opinion as highly on every subject.

Re: Introducing Graph Search

#219

Post by shadowmint »

spindritf wrote: post #170
Irregardless wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is huge. Huge! Quite the opposite, in my opinion. People don't like being bothered by strangers on Facebook. It's weird and creepy, especially so when it's a guy contacting a girl. This could be seen as a disincentive to share if you don't want your face popping up on search results for people outside your immediate network. It also makes friends who are ignorant or careless about privacy more of a liability.…

> People don't like being bothered by strangers People love being bothered by strangers. Just try it. Make any half-funny observation about the world around you to a random stranger in the line, at the hairdresser... just not when they're actively doing something. Weather the surprise, repeat what you said if necessary, allow them to come up with a response. If they don't, follow through yourself. At first it seems l…

You know, there's a difference between 'introverts' and 'extraverts'; those people who stand around and feel awkward if no one is saying anything?

You know? The ones who want to talk to you in elevators? Or just come and stand next your desk while you're trying to do work and talk? All socionormative, smile and handshake?

Maybe you should watch this: http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts....

Here's a thing: If I dont know you, and you want a conversation, catch my eye. If I smile, sure, lets chat.

If I look away, look at my phone, stare out the window.

dont talk to me

Your social obligation to engage is unwelcome

In all seriousness; you need to re-evaluate if you honestly believe "People love being bothered by strangers."

Some people may; many do not. You enjoy bothering strangers. There's a difference.

Re: Introducing Graph Search

#220

Post by codva »

shock-value wrote: post #55

Some of the examples in the promo videos are pretty far-fetched. I mean, does anyone really give Facebook any information about which dentist he or she goes to? I've never even seen a post from someone talking about going to the dentist, let alone including the dentist's actual name!

I recently recommended a dentist to a friend - in a thread on his FB wall. So yes, it happens.
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