UCI to use grant for study on social networking sites

It’s every social butterfly’s worst nightmare — their Facebook or MySpace page disappearing.

What would happen to their social network? Would it shrivel up and vanish, or survive?

That, apparently, is the $5.4 million question UCI researchers have been given the task of answering, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, university officials announced Wednesday.

Researchers from different fields at UCI will analyze networks of data on a much larger scale than ever before, expanding on earlier work looking into networks limited to the hundreds, officials said.

The mission is to help scientists understand how national and global networks like Facebook and LinkedIn are born, and how they evolve over time. Web pages connected through hyperlinks, numbering in the millions, will also be studied, officials said.

Results from the research can be used both commercially and for the military, to help identify key network profiles and identify areas likely to grow. The research could also help create software that can essentially link people together on its own, officials said.

Graduate students and professors considered experts in areas such as algorithms, machine learning and behavioral science from UCI and other national universities will collaborate on the project, officials said.

— Joseph Serna