Facebook introduces Graph Search (pictures)

At company headquarters today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Graph Search, a new tool designed to let users get answers to questions about friends in their Social Graph.

Graph Search is not a keyword search, says Facebook. It's structured.

In one example, the query "friends who like star wars and harry potter" comes up with 16 friends who like both. It shows a list of friends who like those movies, plus you get to see other movies they like.

You can refine the search too.

Facebook says the tool can also be used for recruiting. One example of such a search: "people who have been product managers and who have been founders."

A search for "photos of my friends before 1990" brings up a number of photos of kids, including one of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg from 1972.

Another search: "Restaurants in San Francisco, Calif., liked by my friends from India."

Facebook also showed some privacy shortcuts for users, including untagging or removing photos.

Zuckerberg says Facebook has a partnership with Bing. You can get Web search results when Graph Search isn't enough.

The tool, in a limited beta, is available in English, but Facebook plans to add other languages and eventually make it available for mobile users too.

Zuckerberg says Graph Search is a big project and will take years and years to mature.

As mentioned, Graph Search is now in a limited beta. You can sign up to get on the list.