The World’s Most Popular Websites
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/04/most-popular-websites-google-youtube-baidu/
This article, from the World Economic Forum by Alex Gray, tracks millions of internet users across the globe to determine the most visited websites worldwide. The findings support a theory suggesting that the prevalence of a search really depends on where in the world a user lives. For instance, the article goes in depth on countries where Google isn’t #1. The prime example presented is China, where the leading search engine is Baidu. Gray asserts that in China, users are most likely shopping online. Data supporting this claim provides evidence of the increasing popularity of retail sites such as Taobao and Tmall and thus the prevalent role of e-commerce in China. In fact, Taobao has so many users that it holds the 10th spot in the global top 10 most visited sites. In spot number 9 is another Chinese webpage, the messaging platform Qq. It isn’t a surprise that these top Chinese sites made it big on global rankings because the internet is heavily policed in China, which ensures that the major webpages in China are Chinese pages. Other countries, outside the U.S, with less regulations on the web tend to follow the trend of having Google as a leading search engine.
Popular web networks.
The topic of this article directly relates to ideas explored in this course such as “Page Rank” or “Link based Ranking” where links serve as votes. In order for these sites to be ordered according to popularity, there must be a clear understanding of the importance of the web pages, the way in which the pages are embedded in the network, and how each web page links or refers to another thus, “voting” and endorsing each other to different degrees. The list of top 10 sites on the web, then, implies that the page with the number 1 spot (Google) is the page most endorsed. This also means that there are more links leading to the page, strengthening the idea of a “Bow-Tie Structure of the Web.” The current Top 10 sites on the web have the greatest number of visits and linkage compared to other sites and are thus part of a strongly connected component that helps us visualize a global map of the Web.
Top 10 sites on the web.