Facebook-aficionados use the social networking site for a plethora of reasons, as the site is probably one of the best places where all their friends will be. So, naturally, it is a great way to reconnect with friends and family.
The site has become increasingly popular for friending and getting in touch with lost contacts, so whether it is your family, your friends, your high-school or college besties, and more – Facebook is just for you. And, if you wish to get the most of the Facebook Search, you are on the right page, as we plug you into the best ways of finding people on Facebook.
Best Ways to Search People on Facebook
#Method 1: The Facebook Friends Page
The most instinctive way is to go to the Friends page on Facebook and use the Find Friends. Now, you can search for people you may know by either their last name or by email. Alternatively, you can use the Messenger to find people, or browse for people alphabetically. The basic method will get you results, but the search mode may get exhausting or slightly tedious.
#Method 2: Friends’ Friends a great resource
So, you don’t have the email of a long-lost friend. And, you can’t seem to recollect his/her name as well. We understand you. Here’s what you can do, find another friend (maybe a high-school friend or college friend) who may be in touch with some of your common, or mutual friends. And scroll through his/her list of friends, and you may just find your bestie.
#Best Method 3: Facebook Graph Search
Facebook’s search engine – the Facebook Graph Search is one of the coolest ways of finding people. The Facebook Graph Search feature can respond to almost natural language search queries like photos liked by me, photos like by my friends, or even something like photos liked by Mark Zuckerberg, and more.
The depth of personalization has made it really easy to find your friends, and find what your friends have liked. Apart from this, the feature can also be used as a shortcut to access things like My Photos. So, instead of going through the regular way of visiting the photos section, you will now need to just key-in “My Photos” in the search box and you are good to go. Cool, isn’t it?
The syntax and structure of the search are not-too-tricky. So, you can start with www.facebook.com/search and then go on to add limitless combination operators such as /photos-tagged, or /photos-by. You may even just try entering a search query in the search box at the top looking like, “People who like Tom Cruise and who live in China“.
Quick Tip: It may help to look up the Facebook ID for the entity you are searching for. So, for example, you are looking for an individual let’s say – Mark Zuckerberg.
- You can hover over his profile photo.
- And, right-click and select “Copy link address“.
- Now, paste the link in a text editor or a word processor, you may have a result looking like:
“https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10102454385528521&set=a.743613136151&type=3&source=11&referrer_profile_id=4”
The digits after the referrer_profile_id are what you are looking for, in this case, it is “4”. Alternatively, you can copy the link address for a group, location, or organization from the profile photo just as mentioned above.
Now, you are all set to try various Facebook Graph Search Operators in combination with the acquired Facebook Id. The search is quite powerful and you can try scores of possibilities.
#Method 4. Use the Filter Results feature
The beauty of the Facebook search bar is its immediate results. So, as soon as you key in something in the search bar, the Facebook Typeahead comes into picture bringing in the most relevant range of results from your immediate contacts. So, you get the results including people, pages, events, groups, networks, and more.
And, now you can choose to use the Filter Search Results, which are on the left-hand side of the search results page. As you choose the search filters, you will get a more trimmed and rearranged version of results, which would be more specific to what you are looking out for.
#Method 5. Facebook Suggestions
In the course of using Facebook, you may have already come across Suggestions of People You May Know as recommendations. The friend suggestions are usually based on friends you may have in common.
Quick Tip: In the case you find a suggestion of a person you may know who has no mutual friends, remember that there could be some people who have their friends list set to private, which implies that some of the suggestions who are friends of friends may not show up as friends you have in common.
Nonetheless, this option gives you another great way of friending. And, in the case you don’t wish to be friends with some people, just click on Remove next to the name. As you remove the suggestions that are not-so-helpful you can get a better list of People You May Know suggestions.
#Method 6. Search for Two or More Things at once
Facebook extends a wonderful way of blending two or more things that you are looking for with the use of the pipe character (Shift + backslash). So, in the case you are looking for a friend named Mike Anderson and Automotive sector, your search string in the search box would look like “Mike Anderson | Automotive sector.”
#Method 7. Try Search for Facebook Networks
The Facebook search page is quite powerful and you can choose to use the drop-down menu to look within your networks. Alternatively, you can browse the left-hand side menu to filter the search results. The general search page includes All results (together with groups, friends, posts by friends, and Web results powered by Bing).
And, you can choose to ‘like‘ pages and groups that you are interested in or even search for something more specific within the status updates of your friends.
#Method 8. Try Finding Classmates on Facebook
It’s always an enjoyable experience to connect with former classmates, and Facebook could definitely be a place to get in touch with them. So, search with the input of a graduation year (like 2005) or maybe a specific name (like Mike Taylor) and connect to your friend(s) from the search results.
Alternatively, if you have updated your Facebook profile with details of your alma mater, then you may also receive recommendations of people from your alma mater.
#Method 9. Try looking for Work Colleagues
In the case, there are individuals affiliated with a company or has put the affiliation on their Facebook profile then you may be able to find the individual(s) using the Facebook company search page.
#Method 10 .Find Nearby Friends
In the case you opt-in for real-time location sharing (possible in both iOS and Android), you could try finding Nearby Friends. So, you can see approximately how far away you are from your friends and also share your exact location with them for a limited time. So, now it would be not only to search for your friends but actually meet them up in person and spend time together.
Friending is fun and with the myriad options on Facebook on searching for your friends (as mentioned above), you can get started and reconnect with your loved ones. We would also be keen on hearing from you on your favorite way(s) of finding people on Facebook. So, drop in your inputs in the Comments Box below.
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