The Importance of Web Topology

Web topology contains more complexity than simple linear chains. In this section, we will discuss attempts to measure the global structure of the Web, and how individual webpages fit into that context. Are there interesting representations that define or suggest important properties? For example, might it be possible to map knowledge on theWeb? Such a map might allow the possibility of understanding online communities, or to engage in 'plume tracing' - following a meme, or idea, or rumour, or factoid, or theory, from germination to fruition, or vice versa, by tracing the way it appears in various pages and their links [5]. Given such maps, one could imagine spotting problems such as Slashdot surges (the slowing down or closing of a website after a new and large population of users follow links to it from a popular website, as has happened from the site of the online magazine Slashdot) before they happen - or at least being able to intervene quickly enough to restore normal or acceptable service soon afterwards. Indeed, we might even discover whether the effects of Slashdot surges have declined thanks to the constant expansion of the Web, as has been argued recently [166].

Mapping the web allows us to find patterns in it, with potential applications.