[uf-discuss] Actual research regarding usage of rel-me, rel-contact, and friends. WAS: Social Networks that use XFN and Social Networks that use FOAF

[Derrick Lyndon Pallas]

Out of a sample of ~150k sites with some XFN, the following XFN rels are 
used, in order of frequency. (That is, one site gets one vote for an XFN 
rel used somewhere on the site.)

    me    65.46%
    friend    31.82%
    met    20.81%
    colleague    19.56%
    co-worker    14.46%
    contact    11.15%
    neighbor    5.00%
    co-resident    4.45%
    sweetheart    3.72%
    sibling    3.03%
    spouse    2.85%
    muse    2.79%
    parent    2.25%
    crush    1.86%
    kin    1.83%
    date    1.12%
    child    1.12%
    acquaintance    0.14%


Out of a sample of ~15M pages with XFN, the following XFN rels are used, 
in order of frequency. (That is, one page gets one vote for an XFN rel 
used somewhere on the page.)

    me    71.051%
    friend    22.403%
    colleague    13.929%
    met    13.247%
    co-worker    11.306%
    contact    11.182%
    neighbor    3.618%
    co-resident    2.940%
    parent    2.698%
    sweetheart    2.094%
    muse    1.707%
    spouse    1.652%
    sibling    1.398%
    crush    1.073%
    kin    0.942%
    acquaintance    0.641%
    date    0.612%
    child    0.603%

So, while a large number of sites that use XFN do have "me" somewhere, 
35% don't. Furthermore, while the statement by Chris Messina[1] is 
corrent in asserting that "me" and "contact" are widely used, it is not 
based on solid research.

The above data indicates that "contact" is not nearly as supreme as 
"me," which is in a different league altogether. On the contrary, 
"friend," "met," "colleague," and "co-worker" are at least as widely 
used as "contact." The discrepancy appears to be bias towards the short 
head of the usage curve.

Furthermore, I don't think anyone has really done a survey of 
non-English usage. I certainly haven't. Many of the sites that I've 
found that do use more than "me" are non-English, but certainly should 
not be discounted.

Here is a random sampling of sites that do use XFN and the rels are used 
by each in the last six months and are in the long tail.


ziki.com        colleague friend me met muse spouse

topspeed.com    contact friend

birdz.sk        friend me neighbor

pushhit.com     met

majoke.com      co-worker friend met

bloguje.cz      child co-resident co-worker colleague contact crush date 
friend kin me met muse neighbor parent sibling spouse sweetheart

11870.com       contact me

inter.co.yu     co-resident colleague contact friend me met neighbor

finaltr.com     friend muse

tractorfan.nl   colleague kin me

botonturbo.com  co-resident colleague contact friend me met

tecnosquad.com  acquaintance co-resident colleague contact friend me met

giovani.it      child date friend me met muse

wolkanca.com    co-resident co-worker contact crush date friend me met 
muse spouse sweetheart

~D


[1] 
http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2008/03/11/portable-contact-lists-and-the-case-against-xfn/



Derrick Lyndon Pallas wrote:
> Costello, Roger L. wrote:
>> Everyone, if you know of other social networks using XFN please let me
>> know and I will add it to the list.  Thanks
>
> I should be able to generate a more
> complete list of sites that use XFN --- including the types of 
> relationships found on each --- some time tonight. ~D
>
>