Facebook’s Graph Search – The Tool That Might Make You Regret What You and Your Employees Like.

To most graph search seemed like a boring Facebook update much like the highly-hyped timeline change that was, quite frankly, not very exciting at all. However, now that a select few have been allowed to Beta test Facebook’s new project we’ve discovered just how accidently hilarious Graph Search could prove to be.

London blogger Tom Scott, who has been compiling screenshots of Graph Searches he’s done, has shown that a simple search could reveal more about yourself than perhaps you might want.  For instance, the amount of married people who also like prostitutes was alarmingly (and amusingly) large; see also Jewish mums who like bacon.

Now you might think this is harmless, it is really, but when you realise you can also search “current employers of people who like racism” you’ll start to release just how revealing Graph Search could be to both you and your business. Two of these brands being big guns like McDonalds and the United States Air Force.

But it’s not just big companies that could feel the effects of Graph Search. Local companies are easily affected too. If you go on to Facebook’s test search on their website right now you’ll see it shows those local to you in the same networks. This means people will be able to search locals for similar interests – whatever these interests might be – and see what company they work for.

This will especially affect the owners of these small businesses who could show up in searches by potential or current customers. You might like a page dedicated to throwing things at kittens, which is your own prerogative in your spare time, but if this comes up in a search tied into your business it could be very off-putting to people.

People are weird; they could take offence at the slightest like whether it is football, music, groups or anything in-between. Perhaps now is the time, while Graph Search is limited, to review your likes.

Of course, the simple solution to all this Graph Search drama is to make sure your profile is private and train your employees in the benefits of being a little more private online themselves.