Facebook launches Graph Search to aid users and take on Google

Facebook has unveiled a new feature to allow users to sift through pictures, posts and messages in a way that the company's founder and chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, claimed could transform how people use the social network, The Guardian reports.

Unveiling the tool, Graph Search, at its first major product launch since the company's IPO last May, Zuckerberg described it as the site's "third pillar", after Timeline and News Feed.

"Graph Search is a completely new way for people to get information on Facebook," he told a packed press conference at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park on Tuesday.

The tool could help Facebook wean users away from Google, Linked-in and dating sites, but Zuckerberg said the priority for now was improving existing customers' experience, with business applications to be considered later. There is no timetable for when Graph Search will be available on mobile.

"This is a really big project," Zuckerberg said. "It will take years and years to map the whole index of the graph."