• BusinessWeek, Friday, May 22, 2009 12 PM

Millions of us are "producing oceans of data" through our use of communication platforms and social networking tools, says BusinessWeek's Stephen Baker.

"When I started network research 12 years ago, we had virtually no data," says Duncan J. Watts, a Columbia University professor who Is heading a research unit at Yahoo. Now, he and his team can study the network behavior of 295 million email users and 200 million Facebook users. Watts says this flood of data could be "transformative."

Statistically, Baker says, friends tend to behave alike, because they share interests. However, this correlation raises lots of questions, like: which types of friends have the most meaningful connections? Which types of friends have the most effective connections for marketers? Understanding the types of relationships could provide valuable context for advertisers.

However, Facebook, the Web's largest social net, has yet to prove itself as an advertising platform, as visitors tend to ignore ads. With revenues of $300 million, Facebook makes barely a dime a month per member. Nevertheless, the site believes that it's sitting on an advertising goldmine, and that by tracking the different paths of influence, it might be able to offer more effective and lucrative advertisements.

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