About 24 Facebook developers, led by former Google engineer Lars Rasmussen are working on a new search engine, according to a late last week.

Citing unnamed sources, the report said the project aims to enable users to more easily search Facebook's status updates, posted articles, pictures and videos.

The new search engine could keep Facebook users from jumping off the social networking site to use , analysts noted.

"I am aware of rumors that Facebook is working on a search capability that will slowly siphon off Google search customers," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy.

"Search is still the number one use of the Web and is the front door for most users. Facebook obviously owns social networking but needs to rapidly grow through generic search and mobile," he added