Facebook’s search suggestions are about to get significantly better.  Rather than just suggest the names of people, events, groups, and Pages a person’s already connected with, suggestions are going to draw from users’ networks of friends and the entire site.

It is, of course, nice not to have to type out your closest pal’s 17-letter last name multiple times a day.  But this change overcomes a significant flaw in Facebook’s existing approach to making suggestions, considering that it’s the things people aren’t familiar with they probably need the most help spelling and/or tracking down.

As for how the upgraded system will work, Wayne Kao, a Facebook engineer, explained on the company blog, "[I]f you start typing in ‘MGM’ to find the Facebook Page for the band MGMT, you may see it as the first result in the drop-down menu because you or one of your friends is a fan of MGMT on Facebook."

Or, "If you are searching for something else, like the MGM Grand Las Vegas hotel or the movie studio MGM, you can select one of those instead from the drop-down menu."

Look for this change to roll out over the course of the week.  Then enjoy spending less time typing all sorts of stuff, and not just your best friend’s name.