Facebook sees 600,000 drop in UK users in December

The UK could be falling out of love with Facebook if the latest figures are to be believed, suggesting a 600,000 strong exodus from the social network in December.

Although it's normal for there to be a dip in December usage, the UK was the only country of the top ten Facebooking territories to see a significant drop over Christmas.

That's according to Social Bakers' stats - and it's worth bearing in mind that figuring Facebook user data from outside of Facebook itself is a dark art and rarely completely accurate.

Rocky road

However, the downward trajectory in Facebooking Brits seems to be a theme across the last three months.

What does it all mean? Well, it could be that the stiff upper lip is back and we're choosing to ditch Facebook in favour of hand-written letters and photo albums.

More likely is that Facebook is approaching saturation point in the UK - the only way used to be up, now it could be that the only way is down. The USA, Facebook's biggest territory, also saw a negative change but it was down by less than half a per cent, as opposed to the UK's shedding of 1.86 per cent.

Either way, faux pas like Facebook's little Instagram terms mishap won't help those wavering about whether to ditch the 'Book. Luckily for Zuck and co, fear of missing out will keep a lot of us in place.

Perhaps today's little Facebook get together will tempt some of those 600,000 users back - after all, who can resist the promise of social search

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Facebook Graph Search is filter-friendly Facebook search

Facebook introduced its new social network search tool today, dubbed Graph Search.

With search engines and phones and mobile OSes all mooted, the internet may have got a little bit carried away with speculation ahead of Facebook's big event today.

Instead, we're looking at a powerful search tool that uses specific filters to help you navigate through all the billions of photos, people and connections housed on the site.

Graphic

Facebook will still offer its traditional search tool, but this new Graph Search bar requires you to ask Graph Search for exactly what you're looking for.

Launching today is the beta version of Graph Search, and it focuses on four areas: people, photos, places and interests.

The queries can be insanely specific. One example given at Facebook's launch event was "people named Chris who are friends of Lars and went to Stanford."

Other examples include looking for "my friends who like Home Alone" (add them straight to your favourites) or "photos of Gareth taken in Barcelona in 2009." When you're looking for something specific on Facebook, this could save you a lot of time.

It could also be a mad stalking time-sink. A number of examples given during Facebook's event were kind of creepy dating queries like, hey, Facebook, find me "friends of friends who like Star Wars and hats and eating spaghetti on Tuesdays." We might have elaborated slightly, but Facebook wants you to make new connections using this tool and that seems kind of sleazy.

On the plus side, your searches will only return results containing Facebook content that has been shared with you or is public - Facebook was keen to ensure you know that your privacy is well looked after.

Additionally, it was announced that Bing answers will also appear in search results for queries that aren't yet indexed. For example, if you need to know the weather, Facebook will cull meteorological results for you.

Facebook Graph Search beta is launching today, but you'll have to sign up to the waiting list before you'll get access. To do that, head over to the Facebook Graph Search.

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Facebook tries out yet another profile redesign

Facebook has begun rolling out a new Timeline layout which groups all your friends' public communiques on one side of the wall while other bits and pieces are locked to the other.

This makes the whole thing look a bit less 'timeline-y' but does mean a cleaner, easier to read layout without any danger of you missing anything on your own wall. Sorry, timeline. Thing. Whatever.

Wait a minute, you're thinking. This isn't a CES 2013 story! And you're right - we're as surprised to be writing it as you are to be reading it.

Image credit: The Next Web

Still, you can't get your hands on this new Facebook layout at the moment (unless you're in New Zealand) so it's got that in common with the majority of products announced at the Las Vegas techjaculation.
Speaking to The Next Web, a Facebook spokesperson explained that the company has "no other details to share right now" so whether this is a case of New Zealand getting a little trial that might go nowhere, or the shape of Facebook to come remains to be seen.

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