As more people use the web for more tasks, changes in how people find information can have substantial effects on competition and diversity in society. Earlier research has shown that the distribution of links to web sites approximates a "power law" (Science, 286; Nature, 401), where a small number of sites receive the majority of links, and most sites receive very few links. The distribution has been attributed to a process called "preferential attachment", wherein new links on the web are more likely to go to sites that already have many links. NEC researchers discovered that the degree of "rich get richer" or "winners take all" behavior varies in different categories and may be significantly less than previously thought. A new model has been developed which can be used to predict and analyze competition and diversity in different communities on the web.
posted by Marcus Zillman |
8:40 AM
