Structure and evolution of online social networks

In this paper, we consider the evolution of structure within large online social networks. We present a series of measurements of two such networks, together comprising in excess of five million people and ten million friendship links, annotated with metadata capturing the time of every event in the life of the network. Our measurements expose a surprising segmentation of these networks into three regions: singletons who do not participate in the network; isolated communities which overwhelmingly display star structure; and a giant component anchored by a well-connected core region which persists even in the absence of stars.We present a simple model of network growth which captures these aspects of component structure. The model follows our experimental results, characterizing users as either passive members of the network; inviters who encourage offline friends and acquaintances to migrate online; and linkers who fully participate in the social evolution of the network.

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