Graphs with Chris Dixon

Google Tech Talk
February 16, 2011

Presented by Chris Dixon

ABSTRACT

It has become customary to use "graph" to refer to the underlying data structures at social networks like Facebook. (Computer scientists call the study of graphs "network theory," but on the web the word "network" is used to refer to the websites themselves). A graph consists of a set of nodes connected by edges. The original internet graph is the web itself, where webpages are nodes and links are edges. In social graphs, the nodes are people and the edges friendship. Edges are what mathematicians call relations.

Graphs can be implicitly or explicitly created by users. Facebook and Twitter's graphs were explicitly created by users. At Hunch we've created what we call the taste graph. We created this implicitly from questions answered by users and other data sources. Our thesis is that for many activities -- for example deciding what movie to see or blouse to buy -- it's more useful to have the neighbors on your graph be people with similar tastes versus people who are your friends. I'll talk about the rising importance of these types of graphs, and dig deeper into some examples.

Chris Dixon is the co-founder of Hunch and the Founder Collective and a personal investor in a number of early-stage technology companies. He lives and works in New York city.

This Tech Talk was presented at one of the Google NYC Tech Talk Series. For more information, or to attend future events at the Google NYC Engineering Office, see http://www.meetup.com/google-nyc-tech-talks/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google tech talk
• Chris Dixon
• google nyc tech talk

[fasterfind]

First words after being introduced. "Can you guys hear me?"... well, the mic was working 3 seconds ago. Why do they always ask that question. Do they honestly expect that the audio crew had a screwup that quickly? Why not give it a test tap, and say hello a few times while you're at it. XD

[Helldiver450]

NIIIIIXXXOOOOOOONNNN!!!!!!

[thelegendarysky]

I like to pace when I speak to others too

[whiteire]

@RollinLeonard Usually I'm ok with the tech talks, but occasionally, as here, the speech is phenomenally bad.

Toward the end I found myself wondering, "does everyone at his company have this problem?" as his crew jumped in to stammer and gibber various answers. A trainwreck like this gets me sweating - do I abuse people's attention this way when I speak? Jeez.

Awesome subject matter. Infuriating presentation.

[RollinLeonard]

@whiteire Nearly all videos uploaded by GoogleTechTalks are like this. It drives me crazy. There is a reason these 1:00:00 + videos by experts never get that many views. I think this stuff is really interesting and I'd love to "share" it on my various social networks, but I won't because it sounds terrible, is produced terribly, and is spoken so badly it makes me cringe.

[whiteire]

nearly unlistenable... like um um like so y'know like kindalike like sorta y'know like like like like like like

[RollinLeonard]

Uh. Umm. Uuuuh. Huuuh. Uh. Jesus! Practice your speeches people! Google Tech Talk presenters are always interesting and almost always terrible public speakers.

[zrzavyorm]

this guy doesn't like plumbers for his friends? hehe

well where is he going to take a dump when his toilet break down?