Six Degrees of Separation

Apparently, there's a theory which proposes that everyone is a maximum of only 5 people away from knowing someone else. At the moment its only a theory - which has been tested several times and "shown" to be roughly correct.

I think online communities such as Facebook.com should be able to aid somewhat in the proof of this theory... in a vain attempt to boost my friend count (in direct competition with my girlfriend) I've been following the links on people in my friends list. It's quite un-nerving sometimes to see the number of people who you know, who know each other... yet you never knew they knew them.

I think there are too many knew/know words in the previous sentence, but I think my message is there somewhere. Purely out of interest, I'm thinking of starting a website to test the six degrees of freedom theory. I don't think there should be detailed profiles or "How do you know this person"... but instead each person merely logs on and writes a list of everyone they know.... the link doesn't have to be strong, just enough such that the other person can confirm it.

Might be interesting.