Facebook has indexed nearly two trillion public-facing user posts in order to allow users to find them in search results.
Starting Thursday, users will now be able to see status updates from other users when they search for news or information.
“When you search, you’ll now see the most recent, relevant public posts along with posts from your friends. Search results are organized to help you cut through the noise and quickly understand what the world is saying about a topic in the moment,” read a Facebook blog post announcing the change.
But this means that any of your older Facebook posts that are set to public could show up in other users search results.
Facebook recommends that users change the audience of their past posts if they are worried about privacy.
Remember – you can change the privacy setting on your Facebook posts at any time. In fact, it’s possible to go back years in your Facebook history and change posts from “Public” to “Friends Only,” or vice versa.
Only posts set to “Public” will show up in Facebook’s search results.
- 2021 heat dome fuelled by climate change, intensified wildfire risk: study
- B.C. introduces legislation recognizing Haida Gwaii Indigenous title
- Whale experts confident B.C. orca calf will survive, find family if rescue plan succeeds
- Chemical plant shuts down after high benzene levels detected near Ontario First Nation
When you are posting a status update to Facebook, keep an eye on the privacy setting to the left of the “Post” button.
You can also change the privacy setting of a post once it’s been published to Facebook. Just click on the drop down menu found under your name – if the post is set to “Public” you will see a globe icon and if its set to private (or “Friends Only”) you will see the Facebook friends icon.
These expanded search results are currently only available to U.S.-based users, but the social network plans to roll the feature out to users in other countries soon.
Comments