Generally people perceive the internet as a world of infinite distractions because there are all sorts of websites available to browse which covers almost every possible indulgence. However, a physicist from Hungary, Albert-László Barabási does not agree with this notion and he claims that in spite of having countless websites, the internet is still quite small at the because according to him users are just “19 clicks away from of the estimated 14 billion web pages online,” as reported by Venture Beat. Barabási concluded in his research paper that massive aggregators, indexes and search engines make the internet tiny. The researcher tested his theory by creating a replica model of the web. Similarly as Kevin Bacon connects the celebrities of Hollywood, Google gives links to different pages of the web. Because of this interlinking, no matter how massive the internet or web world may become, its size will basically stay the same.
However, Barabási’s research paper was not just limited to the explanation of the real size of the internet but it also has another side, which reveals that search engines and social media sites like Facebook and Google are at the same time doing well in connecting people around the globe, which in short is their actual mission. As Google explains its mission as, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and it is precisely following this agenda.
On the other hand, although Facebook is not a search engine like Google, it is following a similar mission but in another way. “Facebook’s mission is to make the world more open and connected,” the company says. Same goes for Twitter, at least as of January 2011: “Our goal is to instantly connect people everywhere to what is most meaningful to them.”
This clearly shows that the mission of almost all of the main internet companies in today’s modern world is widespread and imaginative connectivity. Nevertheless, only time will tell who remains successful in becoming the next Kevin Bacon because with every passing day technology is evolving.
Source: VB
Photo: EnglishClub
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