Facebook has started to include more types of content in Graph Search, a tool for searching what others have been posting about on the social network
Graph Search will now search status updates, photo captions, check-ins and comments, Facebook said on Monday. Previously, it searched mainly what was in people’s profiles, or in Pages on the site.
Users will now be able to search for posts from a certain time or place, for instance, such as “Posts by my friends from last month” or “Posts written at The White House,” Facebook said.
Graph Search is currently available only on the U.S. English version of the site. The searches are done through the standard search bar at the top of the screen.
The wider capabilities are being rolled out slowly to “a small group of people who currently have Graph Search,” Facebook said. It didn’t say when it will be offered more widely, but it said it will improve the service through feedback.
The wider search capabilities should make it easier for Facebook users to find people with common interests, by searching through a larger set of information.
Facebook announced Graph Search in January and made it more widely available last month.
It’s had to address some questions about privacy since it launched the service, and some users hurried to change their privacy settings after it was introduced.
“As with other things in Graph Search, you can only see content that has been shared with you, including posts shared publicly by people you are not friends with,” Facebook said on Monday.