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Netflix

With the Internet explosion that began this century, while many companies failed in the .com bust, other thrived, using the ease and accessibility of the Web to attract more customers than previously possible. One of these is Netflix. While I have personally never used Netflix, I know many who have, and based off this article […]

Information Cascades: The Negative Side of Positive Reviews

Just over a month ago, the Cornell Daily Sun posted an article on Cornell researchers’ findings regarding fake online reviews. The reporter mentioned at the end of the article that “many companies have approached the researchers to get access to their algorithm to make their online reviews more trustworthy”. The question is, why do companies […]

Information Cascades…and Ponies?

Internet memes are some of the most commonplace examples of information cascades. An internet meme is defined as a cultural symbol or social idea transmitted virally via the World Wide Web. Memes usually come in the form of a picture or video, and a majority of them are humor-centered, since humorous material is appealing to […]

Web search queries can predict stock market volumes.

In class we studied internet searches and how Google utilized a PageRank algorithm to return search results based on how many other web pages link to or are linked from another web page. Through our homework, we also learned of how it is possible to intentionally “game” or “bomb” Google’s PageRank algorithm to raise the […]

Private Investment and the US Transportation System

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/01/28/geddes.sotu.obama.infrastructure/index.html In class, we discussed networks of roads and how “consumers” choose their routes based on predicted time length. While we briefly discussed different equilibriums and Braess’s Paradox of adding an additional road, we did not dive deeper into the values that different individuals may have for time of travel. This is an issue that […]

Information Cascade and the Web

Online videos go viral because of information cascade, and in the online era information cascade can happen more easily and faster than ever before. Videos go viral because people share their information, and with mediums such as Facebook they can share a link with 1,000 other people moments after they’ve finished watching it. Once one […]

Network effects in social networking sites

    This blog post analyzes data from the many social networks that have gained popularity recently in an effort to predict their future popularity. The battle between Facebook and Myspace is analyzed in terms of visitor data, as well as the recent progress of the three sites LinkedIn, Twitter, and Tumblr. Most relevant to what […]

The Spread of Obesity: A Dietary Problem or Can You Blame Your Network?

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa066082 Before going into the content of the paper, I want to note that you can expand the article found through the link above to see the full results (if you are interested) or you can just look at the more succinct results that are not expanded. I also highly recommend looking at the animations in the […]

Information Cascade – Facebook’s domination and the shift to a Social Web

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/03/technology/facebook_google_fight.fortune/index.htm This article discusses the competition between Google and Facebook in shaping the web as we know it. In just the past few years, the world wide web has moved from a search-oriented world to a socially-connected world. Google has concentrated on developing and perfecting search algorithms and results. However, recently Facebook has taken the […]

Snuggle Up with a Crowd- The Story of the Snuggie, a Blanket with Sleeves

A fleece blanket is nothing new. A sweater is old hat. But combine them, and you have created a pop culture icon, the Snuggie. The Snuggie is a blanket with sleeves that swept through American pop culture in 2008 and 2009. In 2008 alone, over 4 million units were sold (http://www.chacha.com/question/how-much-of-a-profit-has-snuggie-(the-blanket)-made) . The Snuggie was […]

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