A Graphical Representation of the Internet - Powerful Possibilities

[MineralMan]

I just found this site:

http://internet-map.net/

It represents the top 350,000 websites on the Internet as colored circles of different sizes that indicate traffic. The interface on the site is zoomable, letting you zoom in on any part of the map. As circles grow larger when you zoom, the URL appears on the circle. The site also has a search tool you can use to search for specific URLs in the site.XXX format.

You can also specify a global region to further make this useful.

Clicking on any of the circles offers up Alexa data on the particular URL.

I want a browser that uses this interface, or some other visual representation of the Internet. I'm tired of not being able to see relationships and impact of various sites, and would really love to be able to explore on a visual map.

See what you think of this way of looking at the web.

[Bluenorthwest]

1. This isn't a way of looking at the web, nor is it a visual representation of the internet

rather it is a visual representation of data about the internet. It's the ratings with colors and shapes, it's still just rating and ranking.

[MineralMan]

2. As you please.

I'm interested in finding a visual way of browsing the Internet. This was found in that search. What I'm really looking for is something different, but I did find this interesting.

What I want is a three-dimensional real-time view of the Internet I can explore freely. By either clicking on something, searching, or entering a url as a starting point, I want to see links and associations as an image, with the ability to click on anything on the image and view what I click from a different perspective.

Web browsers and search engines are static, two dimensional text-based things, and do not show relationships. As such, they have limited usefulness, IMO. I want to be able to browse in another way altogether and see the interconnections in a meaningful way.

I've been wanting that for a very long time, but such a thing is not a reality at this point. If it were, it would change how people use the Internet.

I pointed out an interesting website, which shows the Internet in a way that is based on traffic to sites. It doesn't do what I want, but is interesting, nevertheless.

[MineralMan]

3. Looking at that site more closely and reading the About page,

It's not as simple as you think. Sites are associated through link traffic. Related content forms part of the association. In addition, clusters also form by geographical region, through the same method. Yes, it represents data about those sites, but relevant data. The colors indicate other things, as well as country of origin. The more you examine the map, through zooming, etc. the more relationships you discover.

So, it is a way of looking at the web. As it turns out, the data box that appears when you click any of the circles that represent a particular site includes a direct link to the site.

Data is the web, and interchanges of data collected about links and traffic form the associations in that map. You may not care for that representation. I don't either, but it is useful in some ways. It's certainly not the interactive system I'm looking for, but it's a step in that direction. I could use more data about the individual site's content category when I click. That would be good. I could use many other things, but I like the direction.

It only represents sites that Alexa tracks data for, but that's OK with me. I just wish for additional info on each site, so it would be more useful for me. Perhaps what I want will emerge at some point. Perhaps what you want will not, since I will continue to be on DU and post things that interest me. That part of the Internet will not change.

BTW, DU is on that map. Its associations are interesting, too.