Teaching Facebook

When you type something into the search bar at the top of Facebook, the most relevant results start populating in a dropdown menu before you complete your search. To save time, you can click on a result right from the dropdown. If you don't see what you're looking for in the dropdown, click "See more results" at the bottom for a full list of results.



Your strongest connections, like your friends, are ranked higher than the less strong connections, like friends of friends. Similarly, pages you like appear above the pages you're not connected to.

Click the "See More Results" option at the bottom of the list of Search Typeahead results to see the full results for your query.

Use the Privacy Settings page to control who can find you in searches and what they can see and do.

Control who can find your Facebook profile using Facebook search by clicking "View Settings" in the "Connecting on Facebook" section at the top of the page. From this page you can control the options people have when they find you in search results (i.e., the ability to add you as a friend or send you a message).

To control whether you create a public search listing of your profile, click "Edit your settings" under "Applications and Websites" at the bottom of the Privacy Settings page. From there, un-check the box in the "Public Search" section.

Yes; however, no information is shared outside of your public information.

You control what parts of your profile people see via the audience selector, and the Privacy Settings Page offers general controls to manage the rest of your privacy on Facebook.

If you want to see how your profile looks to most people on Facebook, use the View Profile As tool when you’re editing your information. Please note that you may see a different version of the site than others when you perform searches from your own account. You will always be able to find your profile in search because you can always view your own profile. However, people who do not have this permission will not be able to find your profile.

To preview your public search listing, follow these steps:

1. Follow the "Edit your settings" link in the "Applications and Websites" section at the bottom of of your main Privacy Settings page.
2. Scroll down to "Public Search" and click "Edit Settings."
3. Click "See preview" next to "Public search."

This setting creates a public search listing for you on search engines, so others can see a preview of your Facebook profile. In addition, things you’ve shared as Public may still show up in search engines.

The visibility of the content you post is determined by your Privacy Settings. Learn more about how to control the visibility of content that you publish (e.g., status updates) by clicking here.

Please keep in mind that you will see a different set of options than other users when searching for your account or viewing your profile. Since you cannot add yourself as a friend, the "Add to Friends" link will not appear.

You will always be able to see the links for "View Profile," "Send Message," and "View Friends" when you find your own account, but these options may not be available to every other user depending on your privacy settings. Also, please remember that although you will never see the option to message or poke yourself on your own profile, other users will see this option.

If you have adjusted your Search settings on the Privacy Settings page, these changes will be reflected properly when other users search for your profile.

When you enter a query into Search Typeahead at the top of any page, click on either the Search icon or the "See more results for" option from the drop-down menu and you will land in the "All Results" filter by default. This filter includes all of the most relevant content from Facebook in addition to the web. To refine your search, select a filter from the menu on the left side of the search results page. Selecting one of these filters will display search results exclusively from that filter, and will also give you the option to narrow your search even more.

Note: pressing enter after typing your query into Search Typeahead will take you to the first Search Typeahead result and not the "All Results Filter".

Search filters include:

• People: helps you find people you know on Facebook. To narrow your people search, just type a location, school, or workplace in the appropriate field and click the "Refine Search" button.
• Pages: helps you find Pages that interest you on Facebook. To narrow your Pages search, select a Page type from the drop-down menu at the top of your search results.
• Groups: helps you find groups on Facebook that are related to your search. Groups that are public are viewable in search results; secret groups are not viewable in search results. To further refine your groups search, select a group type from the drop-down menu at the top of your search results.
• Applications: helps you find applications by outside developers that interest you.
• Events: helps you find events on Facebook that are related to your search. Events that are public are viewable in search results; secret events are not viewable in search results. To narrow your events search, select a date and/or event type from the drop-down menus at the top of your search results.
• Web Results: helps you find relevant web information outside of Facebook that is related to your search.
• Posts by Friends: helps you find status updates and other content your friends have posted that are related to your search. To narrow your search, select a post type from the drop-down menu at the top of your search results.
• Posts by Everyone: helps you find status updates and other content from anyone who enables their posts to be viewed by people other than friends. To narrow your search, select a language and/or post type from the drop-down menus at the top of your search results.

Search is a powerful tool for finding out what people on Facebook think about the world around them. Search for your favorite band to see thoughts about their new album or for a political leader to read reactions to a recent speech.

To see what your friends are saying about a topic you’re interested in, check the Posts by Friends filter. You can broaden your search to Public Posts to view content from those who have enabled their posts to be viewed by people other than friends.

Currently, you can only search for content that has been posted in the last 30 days. The range of the search history may be expanded in the future.

To search for relevant content posted by your friends, follow these steps:

1. Enter a keyword into the Search Typeahead at the top of the page.
2. Click on either the Search icon or the "See more results for" option from the drop-down menu. You will land in the "All Results" filter by default. Note: pressing enter after typing your query into Search Typeahead will take you to the first Search Typeahead result and not to the "All Results Filter".
3. To refine your search to show content only from your friends, select the "Posts by Friends" filter from the menu on the left side of the search results page. This will display search results exclusively from your friends.

Currently, you can only search for content that has been posted in the last 30 days. The range of the search history may be expanded in the future.

Facebook Search allows you to search for anything on the site, including people in other networks, provided they haven't restricted their privacy settings. To find someone whom you aren't closely connected to, enter the individuals' name into Search Typeahead at the top of any page and click on the Search icon or the "See more results for" option from the drop-down menu. Once the results have been generated, you can use the filters on the left side of the page to narrow your search results by result type (e.g., People, Pages, Groups). Selecting the "People" filter will further allow you to filter your results by affiliations (e.g., Location, School, Workplace).

You can also use the special Classmate Search and Coworker Search to find people you know from the school or workplace to which you belong. Classmate Search allows you to search for people that attended a specific high school or college. You can search a specific school, or specify a class year to narrow down your results. Coworker Search lets you search for people based on what companies they worked at according to their profiles.

In search results, the "Posts by Friends" filter allows you to see status updates and other content that your friends have posted. You can broaden your search to "Public Posts" to view content from those who have enabled their posts to be viewed by people other than friends.

You can use a vertical line (the | character, also known as a "pipe") to separate two queries and search for them at the same time.

For example, the search results displayed after searching John Doe | Jane Doe includes both John Doe search results with Jane Doe search results in the same list.

Please report this issue here.

First, make sure that your Privacy Settings allow you to be found in searches. You can control who can find you in searches from the "Connecting on Facebook" section. To get there, follow these steps:

1. Choose the "Privacy Settings" option in the Account drop-down menu at the top of any Facebook page.
2. Select "View settings" in the "Connecting on Facebook" section.
3. Change the setting for "Search for me on Facebook."

If you can't find a friend in search, there may be a few reasons for this:

• The other person might have a privacy option that limits your ability to find them in a search.
• The person you are looking for might not be on Facebook yet. Send them an Invite.
• Make sure to utilize the "People" search filter. This filter narrows your search to people on Facebook. From this filter, you can further refine your results by typing a location, school, or workplace in the appropriate field and clicking the "Refine Search" button. Note that searching for people on Facebook will only yield results for people permit their profiles to appear in search.

We are aware of the problem that you described and hope to resolve it as soon as possible. However, please keep in mind that you can narrow your search results by using more targeted Search features, such as Profile Search.