Facebook graph search - something beyond search.

'Search' on internet has been evolving from ages. It also changed and defined the way we search over internet and also made us provide information according the way we search. And now it took a big turn towards semantic search. Facebook graph search is one of its byproduct.

What is Facebook graph search?
Technically speaking it is semantic search engine where we get results for our natural language queries rather than links. To put in simple terms it gives results within the data  from facebook user and his/her networks and relationships. Additional results are provided by Bing search engine. .

It automatically gives few functions to choose from and extend our search.

How it is different from normal search engines?
It is different. It is different in terms of understanding the query. And so the accuracy and trust in the results vary. Because the results are collected from the information given either by the user himself or his networks and relationships. It depends on the interests expressed by the user and his network keeping their privacy settings into consideration. Whereas traditional search engines like google give the results by matching the search terms with the terms in webpages.

What difference it makes?
As said above, accuracy and trust are key points along with enormous opportunity it gives to its users to search deep with really big queries. Accuracy because the results are generated from the information users gave(believing that majority of active users on social networks are not faking) and trust because the information is given by his network.

Are graph search results prioritized?
Absolutely! They are customized as well. They are prioritized by showing the results from your network first and then results above your network as they are shared public. Remember facebook is binded to privacy settings. And customized as you can refine or narrow your search.

For instance we will do a simple sample search. "Photos taken in Varanasi, India"
there will be a list of photos of various sizes taken by different people will be shown there. Also giving options for two new searches on the top. Here in this instance it gave Recent and Before 2006. when we click on any of it, it gives new results accordingly.

There you can also see refine this search option where you can narrow the search

Few sample search terms you can try and see its extend-ability to refine your search:
Search1: Photos taken in Varanasi, India
Search2: Photos taken in Varansi, India after september 2013
Search3: Photos taken in Varanasi, India in september 2013
Search4:  Photos taken in Varanasi, India from september 2012 to january 2013
Search5:  Photos taken in Varanasi, India from september 2012 to january 2013 and photos by XXX
Search6: Search4:  Photos taken in Varanasi, India from september 2012 to january 2013 and by my friends who like M S Subhalakshmi
.... and the possibilities and list continues.

Search the web through facebook?
Any facebook user can search the web using facebook. By placing "web search:" before the search term.
These web search results are from microsoft bing search engine. One can also see web search results popping up during usual searches as well.

Just go to facebook graph search and discover different possibilities it gives, listen what Marc says.
If you don't have a graph search - you can hit try graph search button given in the facebook graph search page and see the magic!

Also to see the different possibilities of what graph search shows you by just do a simple search music my friends like and on the right column of the results page you can see refine search option, below that extend this search and below that discover something new. Just keep hitting discover something new and see the combinations of search keywords it takes and results it gives. you will love it!

Internet, web has been evolving from ages and it keeps evolving as long as man keeps on evolving and discovering the enormous power within himself.

The City - Varanasi

Varanasi - The Religious capital. A place where we find lots of temples, thousands of devotees and many ghats each having its own significance. My long lasting wish to be at Kumbhmela just didn't happen. So, I took out some time out in August to be in Varanasi. An important thing in my wish list is to spend my early mornings at ghats watching the waters and its shades as the Sun rose and a boat ride. With all the things ready in mind booked my tickets ahead of time and managed rest of the things.

Map of city Varanasi - River Ganges flowing touching the city. 

Main Junction on Luxa Road

But Unfortunately, just a week before, news busted that the holy river Ganges is flooding. As the days come closer for my trip I hoped that floods will go down but to my dismay news remained unchanged and boat rides were also cancelled. Feeling Determined, I did not change my mind. :D With the same determination, I boarded the train from Hyderabad and travelled for 28 hours to reach the city in the evening. I was very happy initially to see good sunlight but realised later that it is terribly hot.

After a quick break I am on the busy streets of Varanasi understanding the routes, busy junctions, watching locales, having lassi, long walks crossing cows and dogs. ( Together they are equally populated as people in Varanasi :)) High security every where.

High security everywhere     

Roads the lead to temple and ghats are quite small, laid by stones, occupied on either side with enthusiastic entrepreneurs selling goods, food and offerings to God. Not forgetting Sadhus in saffron clothes chanting some mantras and few of them playing pungi to cobra.

My visit to Ghats.
I am truly happy for the floods.(Please don't take it otherwise. I only meant to say, we know how bad the ghats of Varanasi are maintained. And these water levels cleaned them and gave a pleasant appearance.) As the waters levels raised, it cleaned the ghats and the water is clean.

Kedar Ghat: Ghat named after Kedareshwar temple located on the ghat. Hundreds of people doing different rituals, dips and prayers. Of course I too had a dip and some fun in the waters. Few men we seriously swimming deep into waters and coming back. Just got curious and observed them for a while and understood that they were collecting coins (money) people offered to the river. Finally after an hour they filled few covers with lots of coins and went away. When I sat on the steps before the temple enjoying the breeze, a women started shouting at the tourists on my left. She is collecting money people offered to Shiva linga's and scolding people to offer money to the Shiva linga's which were placed on the steps of the ghats. This reminded me of Oh My God movie :)

Manikarnika Ghat: Ghat said it was built by Lord Vishnu and 40 to 50 cremations happen here round the clock. As it is said that it is good to get a dip at noon in this ghat we are there at noon. This ghat had its own beauty of few temples drowned into Ganges and could see only the temple top architectures. Also we can notice huge piles of logs and wood around that ghat which are used for cremations. The ashes from this ghat were picked every morning for Shiva aarti. Interesting!

Temple drowned in water

Cremation taking place

Cremation - closer view

Tulsi Ghat: Ghat famous for giving good health and also place where Tulsidas spent some of his life time. Most wonderful place I felt after Vishwanth's temple is Tulsi Ghat. As said my wish is to spend early hours in ghat. I loved this place for that.

One km from there is Tulsi Manas Mandir where tulsidas lived and wrote Sri Ramacharitams. Its a beautiful place. And two km from there is Sankata Mochana Hanuman temple - one of the famous Hanuman temples. It is another must see in Varanasi. Another couple of kilometers we were in BHU - Benaras Hindu University. Visited the Birla temple inside it but missed the museum as it was August 15th. And yes, I am delighted to see tri colored flags on almost every vehicles, pan shops and few people greeting each other 'sare jaha se acha' Tri colored baloons flying everywhere. Took many pictures inside BHU. For more pictures check out my Facebook album and Flickr

MAP of BHU

The famous cyber central library

Birla Temple inside BHU built similar to main Vishwanath temple in Varanasi

Man Behind BHU - Statue of Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya

My other visits are one of the two Kala Bhirava temples located inside the city, Dashwamedha Ghat, few other temples. I missed boat ride, as they were cancelled due to floods.

Nevertheless to say the wonderful part of my trip is the journey in Indian railways on the way back crossing green farms, small streams flowing down the hills and much more fun.

 

Visual Content and its Importance

Anything which is appealing to eyes has more impact. This is ruling the social media world. Istn't it?

Visual content and human brain

• 90% of information transmitted to brain is visual 
• Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text in human brain
• Human brain remembers only 20% of what they read but 40% of people respond to visual information
• visual content is so quicly absorbed, communicates data more effectively but also affects us emotionally. 

Now, the whole world of social media is running with visual content. Almost every social network sites like Facebook, Pintrest, Instagram...etc allow to promote visual content like images, videos which is again showing many results. 

Visual content and social networks

• Around 700 Youtube videos are uploaded and shared every minute.
• Photos are liked twice than text messages in facebook
• Content with infographics see 12% increase in the traffic
• 37% increase in engagement is experienced when facebook posts include photographs - In reaserch by Dan Zarella of hubspot.
• 14% increase in pageviews are seen when press releases contain a photograph.
• Posts with videos attract 3 times more inbound links than plain text posts

Visual content and email marketing

• Video embedded emails improve their campaign performance by 88%
• 76% acknowledge that videos in emails generate high click through rates
• 72% believe that prospective clients are more likely to buy after video content sent via email. 

  

Infogrpahic by B2B Infographics 

My key take aways.

• It is easier to convey a point with visual content than text
• It is much more easy to understand and remember the visual content than text
• Colors are good to eyes than black text
• Life is easier with symbols and colors - may be that is why we get traffic symbols on boards than text. 
• When we see at the social networks map in the infographic, the notable point is Google plus is playing an important role next to Facebook. (As Qzone is only for china- I am not considering it)

But then why not all the school books, dictionaries, law books, research papers be visual? :)