The tipping point and internet

I recently finished reading the book, The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell. The book talks about insignificant events can have tremendous ripple effect. To make this ripple effect "tipped" and reach critical mass, the author attributed much credit to a group of people called "social connectors", "the salesman", and "the maven". These people are responsible for a bulk of the word-of-mouth communication.

Thinking back, the internet really became the de facto "vehicle" to help these group of people spread the words. The internet enabled message to spread quicker than ever before. It also enables product, events, news, product sales reach critical masses faster than ever before. The word "viral" actually becomes a popular verb now in the "internet" generation.

A good example I can think of is reputation of a particular restaurant. In the pre-internet days, if a restaurant is bad, it might take a while for people to notice because merely word-of-mouth bashing would not spread fast enough. However, today, if anyone had a bad experience at a restaurant, he/her can easily go online and vent about it. Website such as Menupages.com, Yelp.com, and other food bloggers sites are so widely read that it can literally drive a restaurant out of business.

This example might be oversimplified but I'm trying to make a point here. Internet is a powerful tool to spread information.