Shanghai's role in the Asian cyber city network: Using Google hyperlinks to measure Shanghai's development in the Information Age

Abstract

With the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the rapid growths of Asian cities attract global attention on urban connectivity in the world network. Taking Shanghai as an example, this essay seeks to unpack the question of its changing position in Asian ICT network and ICT's contributes to sustainable urban development. The earlier ICT-based urban research and analysis tend to trace out "cyber" geography via physical infrastructure and material connection. Google search engine allows real-time data collection of intercity information flow, which is represented by hyperlink results in this essay. This study finds out that Shanghai is the leading cyber city in Asia compared with 2003, but it still needs to take advantage of ICT for sustainable development.