For factual information to be found elsewhere on Google or Wikipedia, Facebook tests the latest feature to keep its users on the platform. The company has also stated that it is piloting an improved version of its app on Facebook, which displays information as users scan topics such as public figures, places, and passions like movies and shows on TV. For example, if you enter a film title in the Facebook search bar, you will be presented with an information box that includes all the film data.
The information is collected from data available to the public, including Wikipedia. However, it is displayed in a side panel alongside the results rather than requiring users to click out of Facebook to display the information. This is similar to the Google Knowledge Panel format, which is automatically generated for the search of this type.
Facebook verified that this feature is the latest pilot program running on the iOS, desktop, or smartphone websites in English. (The information panels themselves can be viewed or not by the users because that remains a test). For newcomers, a search word is not necessarily a suitable description. A “joker” search revealed a film details box with the help of Wikipedia for example. The Oscar-winner title did not excel in discovering “parasite” in 2020 as the first film to receive the best picture from non-English.
In the meantime, the ‘Donald Trump’ search easily returned the U.S. president with an information panel but many of his cabinet members had not been provided with information when they were searched by name. In the Facebook search box the word ‘Anthony Fauci,’ not when “doc,” details were released in a side panel about leading authority on coronaviruses Dr. Anthony Fauci’s. As a search query, Fauci “was used.
Google’s Knowledge Panel has no problems as it is capable of making an intuitive leap on the person, place, or thing that the user is likely to search at the time of the query. Facebook search also guides people to their own apps if it seems to be more convenient. The “COVID” or the “COVID 19” search will, for example, return the Facebook-owned COVID-19 information Centre, not a data-powered side panel of the disease, in the top search results. In contrast, Google returns in its Knowledge Panel a coronavirus map a case summary, and CDC detail.
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The update comes after the previous graph search feature on Facebook is disabled. Years ago, by launching Graph Search, Facebook tried to reinvent its search engine, enabling users to find people, places, photographs, and interests using Facebook data. This feature was shut down later as Facebook struggled with the backlash from significant security vulnerabilities, such as the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. BuzzFeed News noted that this hindered the ability of investigators to catch criminals and other evil actors.
Facebook does not use data from Wikipedia to improve its service for the first time. For example, over a decade ago, it used Wikipedia details on its community pages. Facebook did not include further information about how much longer it plans to study or whether it hopes to focus more widely on the new search tool.
