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Identity and Search in Social Networks

D. J. Watts·P. S. Dodds·M. E. J. Newman
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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.

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D. J. Watts, P. S. Dodds, M. E. J. Newman. 2002-05-17. Identity and Search in Social Networks. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1070120

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