A Map of the Internet Shows How We Connect
To see the map, click here.
After a long, and undoubtedly laborious process, programmer Ruslan Enikeev and his team have managed to produce a map of over 350,000 websites. Unfortunately, this map contains very little documentation as to the method of his calculation, but is still quite an interesting piece of work. As a brief explanation of the workings of Enikeev’s map, each circle represents a website. The color symbolizes the origin of the webpage (which country is hosting it), and the size of the circle shows the average traffic to the site. So far, this is pretty straightforward, bu by far the most interesting piece of the map is the proximity of the websites to one another. This was done by an algorithm that took two full weeks of computing to determine all the relative distances (More information about that process can be found here). He then found an equilibrium position for each site, which resulted in the map that we are viewing.
What I found most intriguing about Enikeev’s process is that he calculated both an attractive force, and a repulsive force for each pair of websites among the 350,000. When we typically think of website interrelations, we tend to think about a website’s “closeness” to another. Essentially, how easy it is to reach one website from another. When we have great difficulty linking the two endpoints, we say that the websites are not very close. This concept is similar to the wiki game, and shows just how closely two subjects are related. However, we usually do not think of websites actively repelling each other, like enemies. Again, Enikeev’s website does not document how he performed these calculations, but the notion of repulsion begs a few questions. If website relations are measured on a range parallel to that of human friendliness, then there must be a neutral position somewhere between love and hate. I think that it would be fascinating to know how Enikeev determined that point of neutrality, especially with data taken just from a web tracking firm.
Here is an example of what a piece of the map looks like:
From a quick glance at the thumbnail, it is easy to see that google, youtube, facebook, and yahoo are some of the largest sites in the US (blue). However, if the map is zoomed in more, the websites in between the giants can be seen. Enlarge the map enough, and we can see what surrounds the websites we frequent. As it turns out, the answer is advertisements. Around each giant circle are thousands of tiny websites that we have never heard of – very likely the result of clicking on a pop-up or sidebar advertisement. The fact that our favorite websites are literally flooded with ads may be unsurprising, but now we have a visible and clear representation of the density of ads on a webpage.
On the other end of the spectrum, we can see a great overview of the internet if we zoom all the way out. Each color represents a different area of the world, and for the most part are completely separate. Indeed the internet greatly aids our overseas communication, but it is evident from this map that we are not as connected as we may think. The reasons for this could be quite varied, the simplest being the language barrier between say, America (blue) and Russia (red). However, if we take a country like China (yellow), we can certainly attribute part of its separation to government control over the internet, among other reasons. So, as the world continues to develop and mix, what will this map look like 10 years from now? Will the colors remain separate as they are, or will the map evolve into a massive rainbow blob? Hopefully, Enikeev will be able to tell us, with the next update of the internet map.
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