So FYI, all your public Facebook posts are now searchable

Something major is happening to Facebook’s search function. So, to get everyone up to speed, for the past year, we’ve been able to use the search bar to look for more than just friends. You could search for topics and learn which of your friends had commented on the issue of the hour rather than having to look through your entire news feed. Now, Facebook has indexed all two trillion posts on the website, so any public content is fair game.

This is a bold step for Facebook. No longer is the platform simply a place to connect with friends. Now it’s a place to connect with the world. Facebook is now the only social media outlet (other than Twitter) where you can browse what all of the Internet is talking about.

So let’s get a little more clarity re: how this all works. Let’s say you search “cats.” Important search. The results will be ordered by relevance and hierarchy. News and posts from sources like vets would sit at the top. As you scroll, the results would get more informal, moving to blogs, your friends and, finally, strangers. Yes, that hilarious photo you posted of your cat squeezing itself into a tiny shoebox could end up in the search results of a total stranger.

This will also be helpful with current events and pop culture, especially because news primarily breaks on the Internet. Rousseau Kazi, a product manager on Facebook’s search team, says:

This new feature is in the process of being rolled out to desktop, mobile, and Android Facebook users. Soon, it won’t matter how many Facebook friends you have. Through this new search function, you’ll be connected to everyone.

(Image via Tomislav Pinter / Shutterstock.com)