Facebook is conducting a trial of a new real-time search feature, it has been announced.

The new offering has drawn comparisons with microblogging service Twitter, which is known for its own such search facility.

Kari Lee of Facebook said in a blog post that only a small number of users are involved with the trial at present.

Users in this select group will be able to conducted searches for content posted by other members - including individuals and companies - as they are uploaded to the social network.

A new layout has been designed for search results, with users having the option of searching their own News Feed or looking for status updates, notes and posted links by others who have set their profiles to be viewed by everyone on the website.

Ms Lee commented: "In the coming weeks, as we learn more from the different test versions of Search, we'll keep making improvements and may expand the test to more people."

Twitter upgraded its own search offering in April, when it made changes that allowed users to see tweets and view trends as they happened on the social network.