Facebook is testing out keyword searches for older posts

If you ever find yourself trying to remember just exactly what restaurant your friend recommended on Facebook several months ago, you might be able to do so soon with just a simple keyword search. Along with a “satire” tag and stickers in comments, it appears the social network is testing a feature that’ll let you do a keyword search on old posts from people in your network. To be clear, the search will only be on posts that are meant for you to see. In other words, posts that your friends published as private will still be banned from your curious eyes if you’re not the intended audience. Additionally, this test is apparently mobile-only.

Facebook Inc. is testing a feature for its mobile application that lets people search through old posts from friends by keyword, a move that makes it easier to resurface content that may otherwise be buried. The tool, which is only available to some members of the world’s biggest social network, lets mobile users see any content that was previously available to them through friends or pages they followed. Facebook said in an e-mailed statement that the feature is “an improvement to search on mobile.” The Menlo Park, California-based company has in the past dealt with privacy questions for highlighting content that users anticipated would be harder to find. In response, Facebook is giving users more control over their settings and this year added options for members to find out why they are served certain ads, among other updates. Still, Facebook continues to grapple with consumer doubts about how it treats data, especially with its mobile products. Facebook’s Messenger application gets a one-star rating in Apple Inc.’s app store, partly because of customer skepticism about how the social network will enact its terms of service.