Map Of Online Communities: 2010 vs. 2007 (PICTURES)

XKCD's Randall Munroe, who created a popular, just-for-fun, pseudo-scientific Map of Online Communities in 2007, has revamped his previous infographic. The latest edition, called the Updated Map of Online Communities, reflects (among other information) data from spring and summer 2010.

"Communities rise and fall," writes Munroe, "and total membership numbers are no longer a good measure of a community's current size and health. This updated map uses size to represent total social activity in a community--that is, how much talking, playing, sharing, or other socializing happens there."

The 2010 estimates "are based on the bet numbers I could find, but involved a great deal of guesswork, statistical inference, random sampling, nonrandom sample, a 20,000 cell spreadsheet, emailing, cajoling, tea-leaf reading, goat sacrifices, and gut instinct (i.e. making things up)," Munroe explains.

Indeed, seismic shifts have occurred among social networks since 2007. Facebook's presence has grown to become the dominant feature on the updated map. MySpace, on the other hand, is quite tiny and difficult to locate.

View the "map" below, or click here to see the original.

LOOK: 2010

LOOK: 2007 via XKCD

For another take on social networking communities, view Flowtown's 2010 Map of Online Communities

Comments

[Max Shaw]

04:35 PM on 10/12/2010

One of the cooler things Ive seen on here in a while. Kudos.

[Ron Broxted]

06:32 PM on 10/11/2010

So my blog is a small island of the Greek coast? Pass the ouzo I feel a song coming on.

[LasVegasIntern]

06:06 PM on 10/11/2010

Totally wrote about this a few days ago. I love the picture and my boss actually ordered me the poster after reading my blog post (http://pricefallsllc.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/a-new-type-of-geography/). Mashable also had another drawing commissioned that you can see on the post!

[LMPE]

06:25 PM on 10/10/2010

That's an odd thing to trace.

[barrada nicto]

07:31 AM on 10/10/2010

VERY unreliable numbers.

[barrada nicto]

07:34 AM on 10/10/2010

All different kinds of traffic measured in different ways.

Comparing Apples and Kumquats.

[jonmarrero]

09:06 PM on 10/09/2010

When will this map be available as an update for my google earth app?

[Robert David Steele]

07:09 PM on 10/09/2010

Truly excellent, cross-posted with link back at Phi Beta Iota the Public Intelligence Blog (www.phibetaiota.net).

[Robert David Steele]

07:08 PM on 10/09/2010

Can you please delete my just posted comment? Submitting new version without the name, too intrusive.

[Chauntecleer]

04:44 AM on 10/11/2010

Hope I removed the one you wanted removed :-)

[Claw2122]

06:04 PM on 10/09/2010

115,271 people online currently on IMVU yet it's nowhere on this map? least that i can see.

[Kaviraj]

08:32 PM on 10/09/2010

11,934,721 on skype at this moment.

[SolarPowerGuy]

05:11 PM on 10/09/2010

You have to look hard to find the Huffington Post. We should make a point to be more important!

[eric14]

06:25 AM on 10/09/2010

Not apt map.Imagine post-modern sculpture made up intersecting planes at different angles. Now add curvilinear planes to create more intersections. Add color. There you have ingredients for making a map of social networking.

Social networks are not islands in an ocean. They are intersecting planes of communication. Get with Postmodernity flatlanders.

[jabailo]

02:18 AM on 10/09/2010

Shouldn't "Facebookland" have a lot of senior apartment complexes?

[VanessaFas]

12:15 AM on 10/09/2010

Funny, scary, and weird. I like the Blogipelago from 2007.

[zelduh]

03:52 PM on 10/11/2010

Me 2

[David Gregors]

07:19 PM on 10/08/2010

wasn't this on here a while back?

[He Bre]

05:09 PM on 10/08/2010

They mapped it !