Changes to Facebook Search

A new post on the Facebook Developer blog says…

We've improved the Search box on Facebook to make it even easier for users to navigate to the things they care most about: people, applications, Pages, or any object within the social graph. The Search typeahead now offers these new features:

• Second-degree connections: The Search box now surfaces friends of friends as well as Pages, applications, or other objects friends are connected to. If a user starts typing in a name of an application that a friend has started using, it's likely to appear at the top of the typeahead results.
• Popular connections: If an application or Page is popular, it's likely to appear in search results, even if a user is distantly connected to it.
• Bigger profile thumbnails: Larger profile pictures in the search results make it easier for users to identify what they're looking for.

These changes will make it easier for users to discover and make new connections, as well as navigate back to them later. Applications a user has authorized, whether or not they have been bookmarked, will continue to appear in the typeahead as they do today.

I’m particularly pulled into the first two points.  I look at this as Facebook’s own version of PageRank.

Second-degree Connections

The more friends of yours that are a Fan of a Page, the higher a Page will show in the results (even if you are not a Fan yet).

Popular Connections

The more popular a page is the higher it will rank in the search results.  What makes a Page popular?  It’s not just the sheer number of fans – it’s the interaction of that page with it’s fans.  Will pages with better Post Quality and Fan Interaction win out over pages with more fans.  I’m sure there’s a complex algorithm they have for that.