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Where’s Facebook Advanced Search?

Posted by Nick O'Neill on August 14th, 2008 10:35 PM
Share 31 Comments

I think I’m way behind on this but today when searching for Facebook’s advanced search feature, I ended up empty handed. The new search page only displays search by name, school and company. Previously Facebook enabled users to use the advanced search utility to find people by practically all areas of a user’s profile. Now there appears to be no more advanced search feature. I searched the web and couldn’t find any reference to the removal but this is significant.

First, this emphasizes Facebook’s commitment to making the site a social utility to browse among your own friends. There is also no longer a link to browse for users within the new design. While you can access browse by going to the following page, it doesn’t appear to be accessible via any other method. There’s another component of the missing advanced search story which is a little more sinister. It appears that someone has successfully attempted to capitalize on advanced search gone missing.

An application called “Advanced Search” claims to enable users to search through over 80 million users on Facebook. How do they let you do that? Well in the past month alone close to 50,000 people have accessed this application. When you visit the app, it automatically populates a bunch of form fields with you name, gender, birthday, schools you’ve attended, companies you’ve worked at and more. It looks just like Facebook’s standard advanced search which misleads users into submitting their information.

This application would be extremely useful for any of the ad networks that wish to use profile data to target users. The other funny thing about this application? It doesn’t appear to actually provide any advanced search functionality. Instead it simply collects data. When you view the “advanced search application” it states “Welcome to Advanced Search for Facebook – Before you start searching, please check, update and store your details so that other people can search for you.”

It then prompts users to enter there info. If you don’t enter anything, it doesn’t display the search. Yikes! I’ve tried searching for more information on this application which has been popular since last October and I couldn’t find anything. Have you been able to find Facebook’s advanced feature? Have you tried this misleading application? Do you think it should be shut down?

New Search Screenshot

 



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31 Comments »

  1. It's still there under Profile Search:
    http://www.new.facebook.com/s.php?init=q&sf=r...

    Comment by newsjunkie — August 14, 2008 @ 8:08 pm

  2. If you search for someone (or even just type a single letter) in the top-right search box, there will be a "profile search" link next to the search box on the next page.

    Comment by Garrett — August 15, 2008 @ 12:43 am

  3. It's still very much there — ditto to what was said by Garret.

    link here: http://www.new.facebook.com/advanced.php

    Comment by Noah — August 15, 2008 @ 1:29 pm

  4. Thanks for the link! Where did ou find that?

    Comment by Nick O'Neill — August 19, 2008 @ 6:15 am

  5. Thanks! I have been searching for advanced search. I actually accidently found it yesterday, but today can't figure out how I did that

    Comment by Barry — August 19, 2008 @ 6:33 am

  6. It's still there, just not linked…..http://www.new.facebook.com/advanced.php

    Comment by Rob — August 21, 2008 @ 6:36 am

  7. there is no "profile search" when I follow these instructions

    Comment by sarah — September 16, 2008 @ 12:10 pm

  8. I checked this and it only allows you to search within your friends list, you can use it to search for new friends.

    Comment by John — January 9, 2009 @ 1:44 pm

  9. sorry typo, you CANNOT use it to search for new friends

    Comment by John — January 9, 2009 @ 1:45 pm

  10. Alright how the heck do you search by interests, such as music, now?

    Comment by Lianne — May 20, 2009 @ 1:19 pm

  11. Well I remember you used to be able to also search for people's "interested in:" as well in the advanced search. I used to just randomly click "Gender: Male" and "Interested in: Men" just to see who comes up lol :P … Can't do THAT anymore..

    Comment by Noel — May 24, 2009 @ 11:12 pm

  12. I agree with Noel.. it upsets me

    Comment by James — June 22, 2009 @ 2:32 pm

  13. I used to be able to search facebook for people with common interests, and by doing so ended up meeting all of my closest friends. I’m no in a new city and would like to do the same, but seem to be SOL. Why would they remove such a powerful feature?

    Comment by Brandon — July 1, 2009 @ 10:37 pm

  14. I was in a class of '99 in Nu-West Secondary in NewLands West, and I will like to organize a 10th year reunion with all my classmates. If anyone who was in the class of '99 and interested in this idea, kindly inform me so that we can plan this together. There is nothing so pleasant like seeing your old friends and classmates after 10 years, and poeple, remember this is a once in a lifeftime event, so please make this happen. e-mail me on tmgoza@dla.gov.za or 27797087012@vodamail.co.za

    Comment by Thabile Ngcobo ( Mgo — August 5, 2009 @ 5:39 am

  15. I hate this too. I do see that Profile Search is still around, but why is it so hard to access? And I agree with Noel- I used to do that too and now I can’t. Why did they do that? Stupid Facebook.

    Comment by Boothy — August 22, 2009 @ 5:55 pm

  16. Hi, Could someone let me know if its still possible to filter all my friends from a particular country. Im going to Indonesia soon and want to let them know though I dont want to have to go through all my friends to find them as it will take ages.. Thanks!!!

    Comment by Angus — September 7, 2009 @ 3:59 pm

  17. What the heck happened with being able to search for a name on Facebook Search. Also, we are no longer able to bring up our own friends list on our profile page! Why is Facebook no longer user friendly? People are going to get frustrated and stop communications altogether!

    Comment by Deborah Bilotta — February 16, 2010 @ 3:15 pm

  18. What happened with facebook's search feature!?

    Comment by Bob Dole — February 16, 2010 @ 7:31 pm

  19. new

    Comment by Pema Lhaden — May 30, 2010 @ 8:31 pm

  20. seeking for friend

    Comment by Pema Lhaden — May 30, 2010 @ 8:33 pm

  21. I just want to search for a person by name AND city. (500 names come up, but I know the city, so why won't facebook let me search by city?

    I agree, stupid facebook

    Comment by Donna — July 3, 2010 @ 8:28 pm

  22. I met this really cool guy coming from KC to Denver,(on or about the 8th of this mo. but didnt get his name, @, #.Was going to San Diego.didint feel like tweeting about it, cuase, i dont flipping tweet.At any rate,was kindof wanting to get his e-mail.he was tall, brown hair and eyes.Vinyasa tattoo on one arm and band on one.cute,slighht limp.sitting in very back.So if this sounds like u n you do facebook, check out my e-mail, n drop me a line.

    Comment by April Robertson — July 23, 2010 @ 2:51 pm

  23. This is annoying…. I wanted to search people with similar interests to find some new people to add… they need to bring back that feature.

    Comment by Victoria — September 3, 2010 @ 1:59 am

  24. at Donna,,, me too name and city,, one of the links above got me to page with selections on the left,
    People, everyone, groups, etc
    after clicking People, location was an Option
    now I have to find the link in the Posts above, because I can't see how to navigate it to it?

    Comment by Gary — December 1, 2010 @ 3:26 pm

  25. Donna, found it! put a name in Search, click on view all results, click on People – it's on the Left, below the name there is a box to type "location" , finally click the search button just to right of the Name

    Comment by Gary — December 1, 2010 @ 3:39 pm

  26. note to facebook. FIRE YOUR WEB DESIGNER!!! you guys suck when it comes to advance search.

    Comment by Lee — January 3, 2011 @ 7:46 am

  27. What happened to the ability to search for new friends via email address and city? If Facebook is such a social website, why would they remove these abilities?

    Comment by Silver Fang — January 27, 2011 @ 11:26 am

  28. here's a little gem I found. http://www.peekaboogle.co

    Comment by steve — June 1, 2011 @ 3:22 pm

  29. Hello Lorenzo this is Almita here!

    Comment by Lorenzo Gamiz — August 22, 2011 @ 11:25 am

  30. facebook is gay

    Comment by dddd — October 8, 2011 @ 5:50 pm

  31. L

    Comment by mike warner — December 29, 2011 @ 8:08 pm

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