Six degrees of separation

[Romel Panzer]

What does the phrase "six degrees of separation" mean in the following paragraph: " Social networking sites are a rage and will only become bigger and bolder. The main reason behind its surging popularity is easy to understand; just about anyone can join these sites.
The networks are built on the idea of six degrees of separation and facilitates in reviving older ties making new connections, writing and publishing personal views, and loading user-generated videos. And India is one of the growth hubs for these sites, eager to carve out a slice of this pie. My space.com launched its India-specific portal this week. "

[engee30]

What does the phrase "six degrees of separation" mean in the following paragraph: " Social networking sites are a rage and will only become bigger and bolder. The main reason behind its surging popularity is easy to understand; just about anyone can join these sites.
The networks are built on the idea of six degrees of separation and facilitates in reviving older ties making new connections, writing and publishing personal views, and loading user-generated videos. And India is one of the growth hubs for these sites, eager to carve out a slice of this pie. My space.com launched its India-specific portal this week. "

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one "step" away from each person he or she knows and two "steps" away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth. Several studies, such as Milgram's small world experiment, have been conducted to empirically measure this connectedness. While the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured, it is generally found to be relatively small. Hence, six degrees of separation is somewhat synonymous with the idea of the "small world" phenomenon.

[susiedqq]

In the computer world, it would be "links" to other sites. I don't think it means people, I think it means the sites. I think this is there way of the sites to strengthen/market themselves. You can let us know.

In Hollywood, they do this often. There was a Six Degrees campaign done for actor Kevin Bacon, and it was fun to see the networking of all the actors who had worked with him, and worked with others, then back to him. Funny!