Monday, May 14, 2007
Putting Web 2.0 on the map
posted by Seun Olubodun 
Ferdinand Magellan was the first to sail around the world. Lewis and Clark were the first to go overland to the Pacific and back. And now xkcd is the first to give us a cartographic breakdown of Web communities.
I wouldn't recommend using this map to traverse the globe, but even with tongue firmly in cheek, the cartoon highlights where people are congregating online, and how they're using the Internet. Case in point: the enormous MySpace continent.
Think for a moment what this map would have looked like 10, five, even two years ago. Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, chat rooms, and other Web 1.0 states would have taken up half the area, crowding smaller players into their own island clusters.
One can only imagine what changes lie ahead, as Web 2.0 continues to alter the online landscape, and whatever comes next (Web 3.0 anyone?) rattles the planet. Boundaries will be redrawn, continents will shift, seas will shrink, and fortunes will be won and lost.
I wouldn't recommend using this map to traverse the globe, but even with tongue firmly in cheek, the cartoon highlights where people are congregating online, and how they're using the Internet. Case in point: the enormous MySpace continent.
Think for a moment what this map would have looked like 10, five, even two years ago. Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, chat rooms, and other Web 1.0 states would have taken up half the area, crowding smaller players into their own island clusters.
One can only imagine what changes lie ahead, as Web 2.0 continues to alter the online landscape, and whatever comes next (Web 3.0 anyone?) rattles the planet. Boundaries will be redrawn, continents will shift, seas will shrink, and fortunes will be won and lost.
Labels: Humor, Social Networking, Web 2.0, xkcd
