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A Simulation of the Structure of the World-Wide Web

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  • Moses Boudourides
  • Gerasimos Antypas

Abstract

In this paper we are presenting a simple simulation of the Internet World-Wide Web, where one observes the appearance of web pages belonging to different web sites, covering a number of different thematic topics and possessing links to other web pages. The goal of our simulation is to reproduce the form of the observed World-Wide Web and of its growth, using a small number of simple assumptions. In our simulation, existing web pages may generate new ones as follows: First, each web page is equipped with a topic concerning its contents. Second, links between web pages are established according to common topics. Next, new web pages may be randomly generated and subsequently they might be equipped with a topic and be assigned to web sites. By repeated iterations of these rules, our simulation appears to exhibit the observed structure of the World-Wide Web and, in particular, a power law type of growth. In order to visualise the network of web pages, we have followed N. Gilbert's (1997) methodology of scientometric simulation, assuming that web pages can be represented by points in the plane. Furthermore, the simulated graph is found to possess the property of small worlds, as it is the case with a large number of other complex networks.

Suggested Citation

  • Moses Boudourides & Gerasimos Antypas, 2002. "A Simulation of the Structure of the World-Wide Web," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 7(1), pages 9-25, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:7:y:2002:i:1:p:9-25
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.684
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Andreas Flache & Rainer Hegselmann, 1998. "Understanding Complex Social Dynamics: a Plea for Cellular Automata Based Modelling," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 1(3), pages 1-1.
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    Cited by:

    1. Peter B. Musgrove & Ray Binns & Teresa Page-Kennedy & Mike Thelwall, 2003. "A method for identifying clusters in sets of interlinking Web spaces," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 58(3), pages 657-672, November.
    2. Xiao, Feng & Xie, Lingyun & Wei, Bo, 2022. "Explosive synchronization of weighted mobile oscillators," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 596(C).
    3. Bruce Edmonds & Nigel Gilbert & Petra Ahrweiler & Andrea Scharnhorst, 2011. "Simulating the Social Processes of Science," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 14(4), pages 1-14.

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