Facebook unveils social search feature

MENLO PARK, Calif. — If you’ve ever wanted to know the most popular TV shows among your Facebook friends who are doctors, or wanted to see all the photos any of your friends have taken in Paris, the world’s biggest online social network has the answer.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new search feature on Tuesday in Facebook’s first staged event at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters since its May initial public offering.

Called “graph search,” the new service lets users search their social connections for information about people, interests, photos and places. Until now, Facebook users were unable to search for friends who live in a certain town or like a particular movie. With the new feature, people can search for friends who, say, live in Boston who also like “Zero Dark Thirty”.

Zuckerberg says the search feature is “privacy aware.” That means users can only search for content that has been shared with them.

Zuckerberg had hinted last fall that a search feature was in the works.