An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks Export

@article{citeulike:303889, abstract = {We report on a global social-search experiment in which more than 60,000 e-mail users attempted to reach one of 18 target persons in 13 countries by forwarding messages to acquaintances. We find that successful social search is conducted primarily through intermediate to weak strength ties, does not require highly connected "hubs" to succeed, and, in contrast to unsuccessful social search, disproportionately relies on professional relationships. By accounting for the attrition of message chains, we estimate that social searches can reach their targets in a median of five to seven steps, depending on the separation of source and target, although small variations in chain lengths and participation rates generate large differences in target reachability. We conclude that although global social networks are, in principle, searchable, actual success depends sensitively on individual incentives. 10.1126/science.1081058}, author = {Dodds, Peter S. and Muhamad, Roby and Watts, Duncan J.}, citeulike-article-id = {303889}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1081058}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/301/5634/827}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12907800}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=12907800}, citeulike-linkout-4 = {http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/301/5634/827}, day = {8}, doi = {10.1126/science.1081058}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {da}, month = {August}, number = {5634}, pages = {827--829}, posted-at = {2009-11-03 00:45:57}, priority = {2}, title = {An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1081058}, volume = {301}, year = {2003} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:303889 L3 - citeulike-article-id:303889 N2 - We report on a global social-search experiment in which more than 60,000 e-mail users attempted to reach one of 18 target persons in 13 countries by forwarding messages to acquaintances. We find that successful social search is conducted primarily through intermediate to weak strength ties, does not require highly connected "hubs" to succeed, and, in contrast to unsuccessful social search, disproportionately relies on professional relationships. By accounting for the attrition of message chains, we estimate that social searches can reach their targets in a median of five to seven steps, depending on the separation of source and target, although small variations in chain lengths and participation rates generate large differences in target reachability. We conclude that although global social networks are, in principle, searchable, actual success depends sensitively on individual incentives. 10.1126/science.1081058 IS - 5634 JF - Science EP - 829 TI - An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks VL - 301 SP - 827 KW - da AU - Dodds, Peter AU - Muhamad, Roby AU - Watts, Duncan PY - 2003/08/08/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1081058 ER -