Facebook became the center of attention this week with its Graph Search announcement. The new feature allows users to search for people, places and things within Facebook using a variety of parameters. It will no doubt benefit the end user, but how will developers make the best of it?
In its weekly Operation Developer Love update, Facebook said that developers will be able to increase their app discoverability by using Graph Search. The social network was already helping apps along with last year’s App Center, but Graph Search may just prove to be more useful. Here’s how Facebook explains it:
Apps are now more discoverable on Facebook with Graph Search. In addition to showing up in search results based on your app’s name, they can show up in search results based on criteria like “strategy games my friends play” or “apps my friends who live in San Francisco use.” To optimize your app for Graph Search, please make sure your app details are up-to-date and that your app is properly categorized.
Developers who have yet to sign up for the Graph Search beta can do so here.
Beyond the above Graph Search tips, Facebook also announced support for larger images for links in the news feed. In short, developers can now use images that are 200x200px or larger in links. All you have to do is upload the image and tag it appropriately. Facebook will crop and downsample it automatically. Before you start uploading that 2560×1600 image, however, you might want to check out the documentation and best practices.
As for this week’s bug activity, 237 bugs were reported, and 33 bugs were fixed. Furthermore, 67 bugs were accepted for further review. You can check out the full list at the blog post.