Popularity of content in social media is unequally distributed, with some
items receiving a disproportionate share of attention from users. Predicting
which newly-submitted items will become popular is critically important for
both companies that host social media sites and their users. Accurate and
timely prediction would enable the companies to maximize revenue through
differential pricing for access to content or ad placement. Prediction would
also give consumers an important tool for filtering the ever-growing amount of
content.