Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means

This book's author explores networks that exist in everything from Hollywood actors to cellular proteins and lets us into the private (and unexpectedly exciting and humorous) world of mathematicians and physics professors. The 80/20 rule is described as it applies to monetary success by people, web site success with Internet traffic, frequency of protein use in cellular reactions, and evolutionary success of DNA mutations. Be forewarned, the chapter on network economy will not be calming at this time of recession unprecedented since the 1930's. The book drags a little at times. What I was most surprised to find is that I came away with feeling of being one with the universe; inexorably linked, networked, both a product of and an influencer of this world. Dude, Ooohhhhmmmm..... Ooohhhhmmmm..... Ooohhhhmmmm.....

The book traces the history and evolution of complex network theory covering: random networks, small worlds and the six degrees, scalefree networks in a coherent picture.
Recommended to anyone interested in network theory and its applications

Nutshell review - This is a fascinating topic and this is a great book covering it. Well written, lucid and worth reading about this interesting "new" field of networks and small worlds. Barabasi is one of the original researchers in this field and provides unique insights and thoughts.

Another book on the same topic, Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks by Mark Buchanan, covers the same topic and often citing the exact same examples.

This is an excellent introduction to the science of networks. The layman, the engineer and the beginnig researcher should all enjoy & benefit from reading it.

This well-written, easy book is a good way to start learning about network theory. It discusses the history, some basics, and the broad application (or presence?) of networks in the world around us.
However, it skims only the surface of what the research is all about, and leaves one thirsty for more, making it a good introduction to further studying (in my case, neural networks).

The writing style is close to story-telling at times, and this got a bit on my nerves. Apart from that I really cannot say anything bad about this book, I am glad I purchased it.