The Web Experiment – An Experiment to Examine the Viral Nature of Internet
This is guest post by Justin Burris of The Web Experiment.
It’s no secret that the true power of the internet lies in its ability to connect people. The medium has grown to become a constant hum that pervades our lives; its inescapable ubiquity means that every moment of our lives is recorded somewhere online.
We use Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace to write about ourselves and interact with others around the world. We spread information and ideas through a network of more complete than any other.
A New York investment banker and an impoverished African orphan are only a click away from one another. This facility of interaction allows us to spread these ideas rapidly, and in effect, spread them. People tell people who tell people. Though apparent, this viral effect has never been scientifically examined.
The Web Experiment is the first attempt to properly document the web’s virality. The Web Experiment will examine the internet’s viral nature by tracking how many people will visit a website solely to see how many others have already visited the site.
People will tell one another about the Experiment, and curiosity will drive viewers to the website that their contact have told them about. The same effect is what drives YouTube videos to garner millions of views; people want to see what other people see. We are a social species; we have an unquenchable urge to know more about what others do. These primal instincts drive the spread of information, and The Web Experiment will see just how powerful these instincts to share, learn, and explore are.
The number of unique individuals who have visited the site is displayed in real time on the website. The site also contains a blog where the experimenters will record the progress of the Experiment as it advances.
Hopefully, by monitoring how people are referred to the website, the experimenters will learn more about how ideas are spread. This unique website will surely provide insight into the nature of the internet, allowing for a greater understanding of human interactions on a global scale.
I am waiting for your opinions about this Web Expirement.
Article written by Justin Burris
Hi, I'm Justin, a 16 year old living in New York City. I recently started a project called "The Web Experiment" in an attempt to examine the viral nature of the internet by tracking how many people will visit a website solely to see how many other people have already visited the site. You can follow me on Twitter to learn more about the experiment and the web in general.
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14 Comments Add yours
Twitter: @ptcsites
October 3, 2009
3:12 pm
Nice one..IT is true that everyone wants to know what other people does and it increases our pageviews a lot.That is the main reason of success of facebook and twitter.A nice short description.
vinoth-Indian money maker´s last blog ..COTD : Sporty Saturday – The English Premier League
Twitter: @bloggerspassion
October 3, 2009
4:43 pm
you are doing a nice experiment justin…i wanna see the results of the experiment….
IndianCashMaker´s last blog ..Just Discovered That WordPress is Awesome
Twitter: @dumbblogger
October 3, 2009
6:38 pm
Great idea justin, we’ll all be waiting for you and I also think you had guest posted once on Problogger. Anyhow I was wondering if i could contact you, we can learn a lot from each other you can email me at vishi96@aol.in.
Regards,
Vishal Sanjay
http://www.dumblittleblogger.blogspot.com
Vishal Sanjay´s last blog ..5 Steps to develop a web application
October 3, 2009
9:18 pm
Thanks for the positive feedback! I’m glad to see that others share my positions. You can contact me at justin@justinburris.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Twitter: @computelive
October 3, 2009
11:45 pm
Wow, a real nice idea…I am sure many people are intrested in what other people like or dislike..this increases the curiosity..
Compute Live´s last blog ..How to Jailbreak iPhone 3GS OS 3.1 on Windows
October 4, 2009
1:05 am
You should also have a blog to document the experiment. That would help other to learn from it in the future.
Watch Entourage´s last blog ..Watch Entourage Show Online: Watch Full Series Or Episodes
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October 4, 2009
3:38 pm
@vinoth-Indian money maker
Nice one..IT is true that everyone wants to know what other people does and it increases our pageviews a lot.That is the main reason of success of facebook and twitter.A nice short description.
^^i agree with u.
I am a web designer view my blog
ishan´s last blog ..Get ip-address widget for your blogger
October 4, 2009
6:44 pm
@Watch Entourage
Actually, the experiment does have a blog. You can find it at http://www.thewebexperiment.com/blog.php. I also tweet about the experiment. @webexperiment
Twitter: @sbunting108
October 6, 2009
3:09 am
Nice experiment from the time of this comment
299 people have visited the page
sbunting108@photo blog´s last blog ..Severn Valley Railway, SVR
October 6, 2009
8:09 am
The given picture shows that most of the visitors are from India and China. Wow, the e-business is shifting from USA to other part of the world.
Twitter: @smartbloggerz
October 6, 2009
8:19 pm
No; Actually the image is not related to its stats in anyway. I just found it interesting and related to this on flickr so added it.
October 8, 2009
6:22 am
This is the reason why social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter fiend off of. People wanting to know what other people are doing, gives the authority and power that big networks like Facebook has.
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Twitter: @deepikasuren
December 12, 2009
8:28 pm
nice experiment…we like to have more experiments like this. whats the current result of this one?
Twitter: @senthilramesh
December 28, 2009
1:20 pm
I just visited the site. It shows it has 2,033 visits had. What does this mean. There are no other links from it. Thats it. Is that the project? What is the benefit from this?
Senthil Ramesh´s last blog ..How To Make A Good Impression In Your Blog