Comments on: Is Facebook’s Search function useless? http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/ Tom Raftery, social media consultant, speaker, blogger and podcaster Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:15:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: exactly http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-135995 exactly Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:24:28 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-135995 weed and Sam: I agree *completely.* I hate the facebook search function!!! It is compeletly useless 90% of the time. 1) Sometimes it is just plain broken. IE: type a search.. and for some reason beknownst only to the Good Lord and His angels, it snaps back to my homepage. Frustrating! 2) There is no way to search REGIONALLY!!! Grr! Why is this? Is this evil? Am I evil for wanting to search for a friend based on regionality, Facebook nerds?? 3) Facebook search pages show the SAME ENTRIES multiple times, people!!! Hello? This has been a bug for many many months!! Do we need the *same person* to continually appear on infinite subsequent search result pages??!! weed and Sam: I agree *completely.* I hate the facebook search function!!! It is compeletly useless 90% of the time. 1) Sometimes it is just plain broken. IE: type a search.. and for some reason beknownst only to the Good Lord and His angels, it snaps back to my homepage. Frustrating! 2) There is no way to search REGIONALLY!!! Grr! Why is this? Is this evil? Am I evil for wanting to search for a friend based on regionality, Facebook nerds?? 3) Facebook search pages show the SAME ENTRIES multiple times, people!!! Hello? This has been a bug for many many months!! Do we need the *same person* to continually appear on infinite subsequent search result pages??!!

]]> By: Sam http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-115027 Sam Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:46:19 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-115027 Weed, I have exactly the same results as you. Facebook search drives me absolutely crazy!!! It is the crappest search I've ever come across for searching friends who you may meet outside your normal circle. Weed, I have exactly the same results as you. Facebook search drives me absolutely crazy!!! It is the crappest search I’ve ever come across for searching friends who you may meet outside your normal circle.

]]> By: Greg http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-114904 Greg Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:00:33 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-114904 After getting 500+ returns, trying to use the restricted search only looks within your current friends, making it utterly useless to almost everyone. The whole point is to try to find those 'long lost' friends which appears to be pretty much useless or needle in haystack at best... After getting 500+ returns, trying to use the restricted search only looks within your current friends, making it utterly useless to almost everyone. The whole point is to try to find those ‘long lost’ friends which appears to be pretty much useless or needle in haystack at best…

]]> By: Weed http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-114860 Weed Fri, 29 Feb 2008 20:55:01 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-114860 My experience of searching at Facebook has been disastrous. One search may return 500 results; immediately repeating the search is likely to find a completely different set of results, or even occasionally no results at all. A search might come up with say 50 results, except when scrolling thro to the second page of results the number suddenly jumps to 200 results. Searching on a common name might find 500+ results; and then selecting "male" in the filters returns no results. Searching on an unusual name of an existing member didn't find it 50% of the time. Maybe it's just that time of the month... My experience of searching at Facebook has been disastrous. One search may return 500 results; immediately repeating the search is likely to find a completely different set of results, or even occasionally no results at all. A search might come up with say 50 results, except when scrolling thro to the second page of results the number suddenly jumps to 200 results. Searching on a common name might find 500+ results; and then selecting “male” in the filters returns no results. Searching on an unusual name of an existing member didn’t find it 50% of the time. Maybe it’s just that time of the month…

]]> By: Paul Campbell http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-112502 Paul Campbell Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:38:00 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-112502 I've always found the facebook search facility quite powerful and have used it to find quite a few people — but a search for my name is prone to exactly the problem described above. It's a tough one to call, and solve, as the number of people on there explodes and common names get lost at sea. That said, it's incredibly useful for searching within friends, providing autocomplete-jump-to a friend, or returning friends first in search results for partial queries. I’ve always found the facebook search facility quite powerful and have used it to find quite a few people — but a search for my name is prone to exactly the problem described above. It’s a tough one to call, and solve, as the number of people on there explodes and common names get lost at sea.

That said, it’s incredibly useful for searching within friends, providing autocomplete-jump-to a friend, or returning friends first in search results for partial queries.

]]> By: Daithí http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-112496 Daithí Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:22:38 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-112496 Oh, and also see this http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/11/facebook-search-expands-will-it-take-on-google/ You might want to give them some advice! Oh, and also see this

http://venturebeat.com/2007/11/11/facebook-search-expands-will-it-take-on-google/

You might want to give them some advice!

]]> By: Daithí http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-112495 Daithí Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:20:56 +0000 http://www.tomrafteryit.net/is-facebooks-search-function-useless/#comment-112495 Restrict a search to a particular network? Given that Facebook opens data into Google, I suspect you'd get just as many Rafterys in a Google search - it's just that Google puts you higher up (through PageRank) than Facebook does ;) Restrict a search to a particular network?

Given that Facebook opens data into Google, I suspect you’d get just as many Rafterys in a Google search - it’s just that Google puts you higher up (through PageRank) than Facebook does ;)

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