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The Facebook people search and Facebook advanced search feature affords users the ability to find their long lost friends and family irrespective of their location, provided they are registered on the social network platform. Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform with over 2.85 billion active users and has been growing exponentially since its founding in 2004. As at 2022, Facebook changed its name to become known as Meta, bring changing sweeps to the social media environment.
This world renowned social media platform is the most visited website on the surface of the earth and even receives more visitors than the world’s largest search engine giant, Google. So there is every reason for you to consider using its platform in finding long lost friends and relatives.
The fact that Facebook, now known as Meta, has over 2.85 billion users in its registers even complicates the People Search functionality, as many users have similar names, so you’d need to be observant and meticulous so as to get the best results from using the Facebook people search and Facebook advanced search functionality.
What are the things you need in other to find people on Facebook?
1. Of course, first things first! You need to know the name of the person you intend to find on Facebook. However, most people often encounter problems with regards to getting the name spellings of their friends and loved ones right. You could input the spellings you can muster right into the search bar of traditional web search engines such as Google, Bing, etc. and you’ll be given a variety of correct name spellings to choose from. Just start with the one you feel is right.
2. There are some situations whereby getting the name spellings of your loved ones right may not be enough to help you find them. You’ll need to have details about your friend’s or loved one’s (College or University, Mutual friend, High School, Primary School, Hometown, Graduate School, etc.). This information will help you take better advantage of the Facebook Advanced Search feature.
How to Find people on Facebook using the Facebook People Search Bar
First and foremost, you need to understand some basic information about Facebook that will help find your long lost friends accurately and promptly. You’ll need to have a registered account with Facebook to begin with, if you haven’t done so, just visit the homepage of Facebook and click on the signup button.
1. At this stage, you should have already registered with Facebook. Now, you’ll need to login to your Facebook account. You can either do so with your phone number or email address.
2. After logging in, look at the top of your profile page, or top-left if you are on desktop PC, you should see a search bar. That’s the tool for using the Facebook people search feature. Just input the name of the person you are trying to find right into the search bar i.e. Racheal Rene Newyork. The essence of also including the name of the city along with the name of the person you are looking for is to assist the Facebook internal People Search Engine in delivering the most accurate and helpful result. You don’t want Facebook to present you a result showing over a thousand “Racheal Rene” for example, which isn’t useful if you ask me. Apart from adding city names to your name search, you could also add his or her college name, school name, etc. to your search.
3. Once you hit the search button, you’ll be taken to the top of the results where you’d shown horizontal tabs that you could use to fine tune your search further. Options you’d find below the search bar include All, Post, People, Photos, Videos, Marketplace, Pages, Places, Groups, and Events. However, we are only concerned about the Facebook People Search feature for now.
As at 2022, there are other filtering options included on the left side of the Facebook people search result. These filters were included to help users refine their search efficiently. At the very top of the people search filtering result, you’d find the Friends of friends. This filter lets users find people who share mutual friends with you. You will need to click the find friends of friends tab to activate this feature.
The next filtering option is City. This option is pretty straight forward for most people. It helps to further refine your search to the city where your friends and loved ones reside. Use the “Choose a City” dropdown button below to add the city where the person you are looking for resides.
Next in the Facebook people search filtering option is Education. If you know the school the person you are searching for studies, that will really make your Facebook search a lot easier and less time-consuming. Just use the “Choose a school” dropdown button at the bottom of the filtering option to enter the school that your friend or loved one studies, and you are good to go.
Next is Work. This filtering option is handy for those that are looking for people working in established companies. Use the “Choose a Company” dropdown button just below the filtering option to add the company where they work.
So that’s basically it for the Facebook people search functionality. However, there are situations where the Facebook people search feature may not be enough to find long-lost friends and loved ones, and you might need to step up the people search functionality using the Facebook Advanced Search feature.
How to use the Facebook Advanced Search functionality
When many people hear the word “Advanced” in any activity or endeavor, they assume that there is a significant level of difficulty involved. But not with the Facebook Advanced Search tool. In fact, the Facebook Advance filtering options are incredibly easy to use, which makes finding people on Facebook extremely efficient, fast and easy.
1. At the top-left bar of your Facebook profile or wall, start by searching for the name of your friends. A list of names, closely matching your search, will appear. Now it’s time to refine your search to give you more accurate details.
2. The search page will open showing you a vertical column of various filtering options at your left. This is where your Facebook Advanced Search begins.
3. At the top of the vertical column, choose the people tab. You can also activate the “friends of friends” tab. Next is City, followed by education (High School, College or University and Graduate School), and then work. Input all the necessary details in respective search filters and it will automatically show you names of people closely matching the name of the person you are looking for.
One major benefit of using the Facebook Advanced Search feature is that it’s extremely efficient and easy to use, as compared to using the Facebook people search feature. Although imputing all those filtering options may seem slow and herculean at first, the results are extremely useful and more precise when compared to the results obtained from the Facebook people search engine.
Final Thoughts
The Facebook People Search tool, as well as the Facebook Advanced Search filters, are by far the best people finding tools ordinary people have used to find and reconnect with long-lost friends and loved ones. The beauty of using these tools is that it’s completely free to use and accessible to everyone. If we have to pay for using these invaluable people finding tools someday, I’m am quite sure many will oblige as nothing can be compared to the joy of finding your long lost friends and loved ones.
Feel free to link and share this article with your loved ones; you might just help them reconnect with friends and people that matter to them.
