Similarity Index based Link Prediction Algorithms in Social Networks: A Survey

Social networking sites have gained much popularity in the recent years. With millions of people connected virtually generate loads of data to be analyzed to infer meaningful associations among links. Link prediction algorithm is one such problem, wherein existing nodes, links and their attributes are analyzed to predict the possibility of potential links, which are likely to happen over a period of time. In this survey, the local structure based link prediction algorithms existing in literature with their features and also the possibility of future research directions is reported and discussed. This survey serves as a starting point for beginners interested in understanding link prediction or similarity index algorithms in general and local structure based link prediction algorithms in particular.