Identity and Search in Social Networks
Disordered Systems and Neural Networks
2009-11-07 v1
Abstract
Social networks have the surprising property of being "searchable": Ordinary people are capable of directing messages through their network of acquaintances to reach a specific but distant target person in only a few steps. We present a model that offers an explanation of social network searchability in terms of recognizable personal identities: sets of characteristics measured along a number of social dimensions. Our model defines a class of searchable networks and a method for searching them that may be applicable to many network search problems, including the location of data files in peer-to-peer networks, pages on the World Wide Web, and information in distributed databases.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0205383,
title = {Identity and Search in Social Networks},
author = {D. J. Watts and P. S. Dodds and M. E. J. Newman},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0205383},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 page, 3 figures, revtex