A visual representation of the Internet as a Graph
http://internet-map.net/ is an interactive website in which you can zoom in and out of a large map of what initially seems to just be a bunch of circles. However, as you zoom in, it becomes apparent that each circle is representative of a certain website on the Internet, with websites with more traffic appearing larger on the map. Websites also appear closer together on the map if there is a stronger link and more traffic between them. In the description, the creator explains that the algorithm he uses to determine the relative size of each circle is analogous to the relationships between electrically charged bodies in classical physics. Each website circle is also color-coded, with each color corresponding to the country to which the domain name belongs. By far, the largest circles are google.com, facebook.com, yahoo.com, and youtube.com, which also all appear relatively close to each other, as seen in the screenshot below.
The light blue color corresponds to an American domain name.
Although this isn’t a traditional representation of a network with visible edges, this Internet Map is relevant to many of the topics we have discussed in class. In particular, it shows one way how the Internet can be represented as a graph. In addition, the relative sizes of the websites to one another also relate to the balance of power in a network. The larger nodes such as Google and Facebook are clearly more powerful, and changes made to those websites will have a greater impact on the numerous websites surrounding them. The sizes are determined by the relative strength between two websites, which is very similar to the strong and weak ties we discussed in class. Websites with strong ties (more traffic) appear closer together, while websites with weak ties (less traffic) appear farther apart.