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Facebook Graph Searching

Graph was Facebook's previous search tool, running via the search box until 2014. It allowed you to do a few things that the new search won't, such as making your search specific to an individual or page.

Mercifully, it is still running on the Facebook server, but you'll need to do a few things to get it to work.

 

Getting Graph to work

Firstly, you may need to set your Facebook interface language to "English (US)". It's found under "language"

Then try a few searches. If the results allow you to "see more", you can get into a Facebook Graph search and start experimenting.

Play with the web addresses

 

An ordinary Facebook search for Norwegian speakers brings up a few results and an option to "see more". This will take you into a Graph search which allows greater flexibility.

The Facebook search is very fussy. You have to play around with the wording sometimes to get it to work.

 

A search for "Norwegian speakers that work for Shell" won't produce results.

 

A search for "Shell employees who speak Norwegian" does work!

 

 

Using the Graph Web Address

Graph may or may not come up as a "see more" option when you do a search, however they may work if you can guess or formulate the right web address.

 

Graph search web addresses always start with:

www.facebook.com/search/

followed by ID codes, which identify people & pages, and search "operators" which define the function. For example:


www.facebook.com/search/4/photos-liked

 

 

These search addresses can be very long, with different groups intersecting to produce elaborate results such as:

www.facebook.com/search/
113371425340197/residents/present/

214666208660220/likers/
intersect/
pages-liked

 

Finding the Facebook ID number

You can find the ID code by visiting findmyfbid.com and entering the user name (from the Facebook profile's webaddress).

If that doesn't work, try looking in the HTML source code for the number following the tag marked "fb://page/".

 

Useful Graph operators

Action Operator
Liked /likers
Pages named /str/keywords separated by %20/pages-named/
Places /residents/past (or present)
/users-birth-place
/employer-location/ever-past (or present)
/place-visited
/places (e.g.bars)
/places-in
Friends /friends
People by name /str/keywords separated by %20/user-named
/males (or females)
Marriage /spouses/females (or males)
Groups /groups or /groups-privacy (for private groups)
Employment /job-liker-union
/employers
/employees/past (or present)
/employer-location/ever-past
Photos & Videos /photos-of
/photos-by
/photos-in (photos taken in a place)
/photos-tagged
/photos-commented
/photos-liked
/videos-of etc.
Posts /stories-commented
/stories-topic
/stories-by
/stories-tagged
/stories-liked
Religion/Politics /users-religious-view
/users-political-view
Sexuality /users-interested/males (or females or both)
Combined search /intersect (at the end of the address)
Language speakers /speakers

 

Sample searches for you to customise*

People & Friends

Friends of Person A that like Page X

Friends of Person A that work for Company B

Friends of friends of Person A that work for Company B

Mutual friends of Person A and Person B

Friends of friends of Person A that are friends of Person B's friends and live in Town A

Public figures named X

People named X who live in Town "A" and like Page X

Men named "Y" married to women named "Z"

 

Page likes

Pages liked by Person A

Pages liked by friends of Person A

Pages liked by Person A and Person B

People who like Page X and live in Town A

Groups joined by people who like Page X

Pages liked by people in Town A who like Page X

Closed groups joined by Parisians who like Page X

Teachers that like Page X

 

Photos & Videos

Photos posted by Person A

Photos posted by people who live in Town A and like Page X

Photos liked by Person A and Person B

People who like photos taken by Person A

Recent photos taken in Town A

Videos of people who like Page X

Videos liked by people who like Page X

 

Posts

Posts commented on by Person A

Posts about Subject A

Posts tagged with Company A

Posts about people who like Page X

Posts commented on by people who like Page X

use Google to find more

 

Places, countries, check-ins and nationality

People who checked-in somewhere

Places visited by Person A

People who speak a language

Home residents of a country

People from Place A that live in Place B

People who were born in Place A and work in Place B and have visited Place C

Restaurants visited by Profession A in Town B

see more at graph.tips

 

Religion-based

Protestants that like Page X

Catholics that like Page X

Muslims that live in Town A and like Page X

Jewish people named X who live in Town A

Other religion codes

Hindu 109107252447873
Buddhist 114761101868288
Shinto 112268618789811
Atheists 111235122235077
Satanists 109491989070706
Scientologists 103822469656893
Jehova's Witness 114897538527344
Jedi 108069459214854
Mormon 112325998784231

 

Political view-based

Conservatives that like Page A

Socialists that live near-by

Liberals that like Page A

Conservative friends of Person A

Islamists in Town A

Search for other political party codes

 

Employees

People who live in Town A and work for Company B

People named XXX who live in Town A and work for Company B

 

Employers

Employers of people who like Page A & Page B

Employers in Town A

Town A Employers of people who like Page X

Employers of people named Tim who live Town A

Employers of Person A

 

Professions

Lawyers who have worked for the Company A

Doctors who previously worked for the Company A

Soldiers currently with the Company A who like Page X

Teachers that live near Town A

Single, female miners that live in Town A

Actors named Tony

Other profession codes

Police officers 109396455744864
Investigators 143544082337251
Accountants 112926212054966
Managers 112892498724794
CEO's 112032368815466
Treasurers 112732928742174
Administrators 143418082353057
Teachers 108464855840777
Trainers 107738079249033
Architects 108031252558282
Civil engineers 131461013563090
Nurses 113599041983855
Social workers 103114063062534
Dentists 119880341359563
Optometrists 112544782094996
Models 106216656075289
Librarians 112282248788333
Or try other codes that might fit

 

 

For other customised Graph searches see Graph.tips and 1telligence

Hat-tip to Henk Van Ess who has worked with me on a lot of this stuff.

*Regarding the use of the word "like" on Facebook and on this page. There is no suggestion that this represents an endorsement or support of extremism.