This week Mark Zuckerberg announced what might be Facebook's biggest challenge yet to Google: Graph Search.

Zuckerberg announced the new feature at a press event flanked by former Google employees Lars Rasmussen and Tom Stocky, who were instrumental in developing Graph Search.

Getting personal

Graph Search, which is still in beta, will appear as a search box on the Facebook profile page and allow users to explore the interests and preferences of their Facebook friends.

For example, a user may ask “Which restaurants do my friends like in Melbourne?” or “What movies do my friends like?” and results based on the preferences of their friends will be displayed.

Google killer?

By making search more personalised and based on the recommendations of friends, Facebook is suddenly looking like a force to be reckoned with in search.

While Google's has baked social information into its results with Search Plus Your World, it cannot match Facebook's immense data gleaned from over 1 billion users.

In a further blow to Google, Zuckerberg announced that Graph Search would pass any query it couldn't complete to Bing, Microsoft's search engine.

Facebook's future

Graph Search potentially not only threatens Google, but if successful could also take business away from services like Yelp and Foursquare. And of course, in time it will open up new advertising opportunities for Facebook and brands.

So far, personalised search looks to be huge in 2013.

Graph Search is currently in beta. To sign up for the waiting list visit facebook.com/about/graphsearch.

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