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 reigns by incorporating your network of friends in everything that you wish to do. In the case of Facebook, “rather than search for a news article, you wait for your friends to tell you what to read.”
Facebook’s social connectivity is the main reason for its success, and is also the main reason for the recent shift to the social web. As individuals remain connected to one another and see the actions of others, they are more attached to using the social networking website. People of this new era tend to visit Facebook to see what other people have done, instead of searching Google to find out what to do.
Facebook has successively incorporated the perspectives of multiple people in the decisions that individuals make. By taking advantage of the effects of information cascade, it has successfully rooted itself into the new social web. Facebook communicates to the user various actions that other individuals have performed, influencing the user as a result. Moreover, with Facebook’s integration alongside websites such as Yelp, there are many more opportunities for information cascade to occur. As people see what their friends have done, they are typically influenced to perform similar things – perhaps go to the same restaurant or diner. The decisions made by others heavily influence their own, especially since Facebook makes it so easy to see these decisions and opinions. This shift in thinking due to information cascade has resulted in Facebook’s success, as well as a more socially-oriented web. As a result, Facebook is a very prevalent example of how applicable and powerful information cascade can be