  In the following work, we compare the spread of information by word-of-mouth
(WOM) to the spread of information through search engines. We assume that the
initial acknowledgement of new information derives from social interactions but
that solid opinions are only formed after further evaluation through search
engines. Search engines can be viewed as central hubs that connect information
presented in relevant websites to searchers. Since they construct new
connections between searchers and information in every query performed, the
network structure is less relevant. Although models of viral spread of ideas
have been inspected in many previous works [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7],
[8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], only few assume the acceptance of a novel
concept to be solely based on the evaluation of the opinions of others [8],
[5]. Following this approach, combined with that of models of information
spread with threshold [1] that claim the propagation in a network to occur only
if a threshold of neighbors hold an opinion, the proposed work adds a new
theoretical perspective that is relevant to the daily use of search engines as
a major information search tool. We continue by presenting some justifications
based on experimentations. Last we discuss possible outcomes of over use of
search engines vs. WOM, and suggest an hypothesis that such overuse might
actually narrow the collective information set.
