Facebook on Thursday announced a couple of important tweaks to its search algorithm that'll leverage the social networks more than two trillion posts.

Facebook VP of Search Tom Stocky highlights the fact that when something happens in the world, many turn to Facebook to gauge the reaction of friends and family. Starting today, the social network is updating search through an initiative called Search FYI that'll expand its reach to all public posts on Facebook.

What this essentially means is that when something happens in the world, you'll be more likely to find first-person accounts and opinions from those that may be directly involved in the event despite the fact that you aren't friends with them.

Stocky said results will be organized to help users cut through the noise and quickly understand what people are saying about a topic or event in the moment. It'll do this through the use of timely, personalized search suggestions as you type.

With the changes, Facebook is positioning itself to be a prime source of breaking news and in turn, better compete with the likes of Twitter (and to a lesser degree, Google). That's never been a goal of Facebook's up to this point but given its tremendous user base and archived content, it could be yet another strategy to fuel growth and boost revenue.

The updates are rolling out now to Android, iOS and desktop users in the US.