ISSN : 1796-2056
Volume : 3 Issue : 7 Date : July 2008
User Behavior and IM Topology Analysis
Qiang Yan and Xiaoyan Huang
Page(s): 1-7
Full Text: PDF (420 KB)
Abstract
The use of Instant Messaging, or IM, has become widely adopted in private and corporate
communication. They can provide instant, multi-directed and multi-types of communications which
make the message spreading in IM different from those in WWW, Blog and email systems. Groups
have great impacts on message spreading in IM. The research demonstrates the power law
distribution of groups in MSN with parameter γ ranging from 0.76 to 1.22. Based on an online
survey, IM user behavior is analyzed from the aspects of message sending/receiving and contacts
maintaining. According to the results, degree distribution of users has a peak value and doesn't
present power law character. This may indicate that social networks should be a prospective
direction for the research on IM topology.
Index Terms
instant messaging, topology, user behavior
