1/21/2009

The amount of or type of effect that a user has on the value of service or product for other people. In simple words the more people that use the product the more valuable the product becomes for the other users. The most prime example for this has to be Facebook. Everyday more and more people create accounts on the site. This allows more information to be shared between the users. You can find friends, businesses, and even work opportunities. The more people that are on the site, the greater the chance for it to be useful to you. Facebook has became the most popular of the social networking sites, but it isn't the only one, Myspace also has a similar type of effect on users. The more that are on it the more valuable it becomes. Network effect isn't always a positive thing. Sometimes too many users can cause the site or program to run slow. I think MTSU's pipeline is a prime example. When too many students are using the site. It runs much slower and sometimes its overloaded and you can't even log in.