Finding old Facebook posts just got a whole lot easier.
Facebook updated its search in a big way Monday that allows you to find your or your friends' posts from months or years past.
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Keywords are important
The feature has already begun rolling out to the iPhone app and desktop. The company hasn't said when it will hit Android but a Google Play update will likely follow.
We took the new search features for a spin on iOS to see how it works:
Facebook searches are based on keywords in the post, so it works best if you have an idea of the exact post or type of post you're looking for.
"With a quick search, you can get back to a fun video from your graduation, a news article you’ve been meaning to read, or photos from your friend’s wedding last summer," Facebook explained in its blog post.
This means that if you remember, say, a National Geographic link a particular friend posted, you can type their name and "National Geographic" into the search bar.
But results aren't chronological
Notably, search results are not displayed in chronological order, so you may need to scroll down a bit to find the post you're looking for. But you can tweak the types of results that appear by specifying whether you want to search posts, groups events, pages, photos or apps. If I wanted to find photos of cats I had posted on Facebook, for example, I would search my name and "cats" and then select "photos."
Again, since it's based on keywords, this method isn't perfect. The search results don't include other photos of cats I've posted that don't include the word "cat" in the description, for example. But Facebook will likely improve the feature over time and make it easier to fine-tune the types of content you want to see.
Privacy
It's worth pointing out that searches apply the same privacy settings as the rest of the app. If you set a post or photo to "friends only," for example, then only your friends will be able to see those posts in a search.
But considering all your old posts just got a whole lot easier to find, it's probably a good time to revisit your account's privacy settings to make sure you won't be caught off guard by a random search surfacing one of those photos you posted before your mom joined Facebook.