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Mapping the Blogosphere

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the down-the-road-from-myspace dept.

dominique_cimafranca writes "Discover Magazine has an interesting article on mapping the blogosphere, reporting on the work of Matthew Hurst. Hurst put together a 3D map of the blogosphere, with bright spots represent sites with the highest number of links and isolated islands represent closed communities like LiveJournal. The study also identifies other islands like sociopolitical commentary, gadget hounds, sports fans, and, um, porn blogs."

12 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdot? by charlieo88 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And where is Slashdot on the map, hmmmm?

  2. Blogosphere mapped finally? by rts008 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now that we have tactical info, we can nuke it from orbit...only way to be sure.

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  3. Re:Slashdot? Or Discover? by kale77in · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This looks like the fastest-obsoleted map in history. I give them twelve hours until every blog on earth green-links a certain article at Discover.

  4. Spherical projection by charlieo88 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I can understand not providing the sphere as maybe a little java applet that would allow readers to zoom in and/or rotate the sphere to get a better perspective. That would require more than a little effort.

    But cartographers have been managing to project a two dimensional representation of a sphereical object for hundreds of years. Too bad they couldn't use some of that "map" technology to make the image more useful.

    1. Re:Spherical projection by T-Bone-T · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It started out 3D, why not keep it 3D? I do understand your sentiment. The experience was somewhat...lacking.

    2. Re:Spherical projection by GrumpySimon · · Score: 2, Funny

      But the blogospherewebtwopointoh cannot leverage existing technologies! That would be agsinst the principle of long-tailedness! What this needs is some AJAX map projection system preferably built in Ruby on Rails with some sweeeeet 2.0 domain name like map.aumatic.us.

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    3. Re:Spherical projection by charlieo88 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You didn't read the article, did you?

      First, the map had no geographical component. Yep, could have been projected on a cube or a pyramid, wouldn't have made a difference. The sphere thing was just a gimmick. Now if he could only have projected it on something FLAT.

  5. Bright spots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny


    you mean that look like Acne and Boils on the face of the Internet ?

  6. Re:Blogosphere Not A Buzzword by 1010110010 · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Blog" isn't a buzzword, it's just a really stupid word.

  7. Livejournal is a dim island? by Risha · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder where these numbers are coming from? I spend a lot of time on Livejournal, including some journals getting several hundred + hits a day as a matter of course. It's no 500,000 hits per day, but it's not as insignificant as that map shows. They're also linking out to unrelated blogs all the time, just like non-LJ blogs.

  8. Re:Can we all agree? by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2, Funny

    The not-as-clever-as-he-liked-to-think inventor was older than 12, you insensitive clod!

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  9. Re:Can we all agree? by walmartshopper67 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm just tired of having every website I have or am involved in called a "blog". It's not a goddamned blog, it's a website. That word makes me want to live in a little shack in the woods and spend the rest of my life having nothing to do with technology.