A Library of Functions in C++ for Building and Manipulating Large Graphs

The WWW (World Wide Web) is a great place to share information - information can be shared across the entire world. By studying the characteristics of the WWW, we can make this information easier to find and access. Information on the web is accessed by use of web crawlers, like the search engine Google. A user types in what he/she is searching for and search results are displayed, where the user can click on a result and be taken to the corresponding website. In order for the search engine to come up with these results, algorithms must be created to search through the web and find websites relevant to the user\u27s query. These algorithms must be quick, since web users often want information right away. They also must be accurate; A user does not want to have to weed through search results for what he/she wants; the user may get frustrated or lose interest. To create algorithms that are quick and that display accurate results, certain characteristics of the WWW must be discovered and considered. The web must be searched and the pages and hyperlinks must be stored to perform these algorithms and to discover these characteristics. The intention of this thesis is to present a library of functions in C++ for building and manipulating large graphs. These functions can be used to discover properties of graphs like degree distribution and diameter, which can be useful when studying graphs and subgraphs of the WWW