Social Media

Facebook Could Learn a Thing or Two From LinkedIn's Faceted Search


Business-oriented social network LinkedIn has a new feature out called faceted search. As you search for something or someone, it automatically generates search filters based on your query results that let you quickly refine your search.

The filters are based on eight facets: current company, past company, location, relationship, location, industry, school and profile languages.

In practice, this means you can create amazingly precise queries. For example, I've searched for web designers in the UK who speak English who used to work at Yahoo and who are my first and second connections (meaning, I'm either friends with them directly, or they're friends of friends). The search results adapt instantly as you apply the filters, making the entire process quick and effortless.


While this is great for LinkedIn, it also reminds me of how plain and unusable Facebook's search is by comparison. LinkedIn has a solid number of advanced options for its search to begin with; with the new faceted search, it really leaves Facebook's search in the dust. Wouldn't it be nice if you could, for example, search Facebook only for friends of friends, living only in Canada? For now, it's wishful thinking (Facebook does let you filter people search results by school, workplace and location, but the location filter leaves something to be desired. For example, neither "Canada" nor "Zagreb" are viable options.)

Check out a video overview of LinkedIn's faceted search in the video below.

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