Abstract

Spread and continuation of the interest in related topics in online environments are manifested in users’ first and subsequent online searches for the topics. While classical co-diffusion models can capture co-diffusion of interest in related topics associated with first searches of the topics, they cannot capture continued interest associated with repeat searches of the topics. In this research, using fractional calculus, we develop a generalized co-diffusion model for the dynamics of interest in two related topics. We use Google Trends aggregate search query data for model testing. Our empirical results demonstrate that the fractional calculus-based model can accurately capture the dynamics of interest in two related topics.

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