In 2010 OpenBook Facebook was introduced as a new search engine that would help you find anything that was not private in other accounts. Even non FB users could have used this new search feature. The biggest issue with this feature is that many account holders many times don’t realize that some of the comments they make online are now viewable by other who are searching. Such examples are when someones comments that they dislike their boss, they might think that only a few people can see it but in reality anyone looking for that term would see what the poster wrote if it is not under their private settings.
Image by OpenBook FaceBook
This new program might have also allowed twitter post to be seen if somehow linked to FaceBook. there is no doubt that FB wanted to compete as a major site like Google, Yahho and others by giving users a search tool that would attract more users.
This website feature was first launched on May 2010. it was built by Peter Burns. Will Moffat, and james home. Within about the first week that it was launched it had several million visits and became instantly popular. the site did not last long as within about two months it was shut down because of legal issues. Today, it is now it is used as a foreign futures commodity trading exchange exchange website. One thing is for sure, OpenBook Facebook was definitely a clever idea but it was very intrusive that it had to be shut down. Maybe they will try it sometime again in the future where it is more clear to it’s users that anything they post might actually be searched by others.