Facebook Cranks Up Google Challenge With Keyword Search For Old Posts

Nearly two years since introducing its highly touted yet highly underwhelming Graph Search feature, Facebook Monday finally gave users the ability to search for old posts using keywords, the same way they do on Google and Twitter.

Using keywords, Facebook users will be able to dig up old posts that have come across their News Feed. For example, users will be able to find posts from their friends' weddings by searching for a person's name and the word "wedding." Using keywords to search has been the standard for years on other popular services like Google and Twitter, so it's good to see it finally arrive on Facebook.

"With a quick search, you can get back to a fun video from your graduation, a news article you’ve been meaning to read, or photos from your friend’s wedding last summer," Facebook said in a blog post.

Facebook made a big deal about its Graph Search feature when it introduced it in January 2013, but the feature has been a big disappointment. It tooks months for Facebook to roll out the feature to all users, and once it did, the capabilities were very limited. On top of that, users had to write complete sentences -- such as "My friends who live in New York” -- to find anything.

This update will make it possible for users to find old content and easier to search in general. It will roll out to all U.S. English users this week.