November 22, 2000

2:45 PM

Map.netmaps the Open Directory onto Antarctica. The 2d view is nice. Shows the relative size of everything. It reminds me of SmartMoney's dang cool marketmap.
posted by matt324 (6 comments total)

And I can navigate information better by wandering around a suburban housing development in the middle of a frozen wasteland how exactly?
posted by captaincursor at 3:13 PM on November 22, 2000

Interesting, but not very useful. I don't think it'll replace Yahoo any time soon.
posted by waxpancake at 4:33 PM on November 22, 2000

This seems like some sort of wry commentary on the state of the Internet. Mmmm, online wasteland.
posted by grimmelm at 5:13 PM on November 22, 2000

It would actually be more interesting if the map had any "reality" to it; as it is, I daresay few of us have a strong grip on the shape and terrain of Antarctica in the forefront of our brains. I presuming the relative size of the shapes on the top page represent relative quantities of links in each area, but why do the shapes disappear after that?
posted by m.polo at 6:09 PM on November 22, 2000

(Memo to A-list gripers: The reason the cool kids are so cool is because they are either a capital city, an important port of call, or are located in a region with an important industrial base. Megnut.com is widely known for its basalt mines.)

I think the "regions" are bigger or smaller because they have more links OR subcategories. Its not sheer quantity, but also relative "weight". I think the map uses location, subdivision, and relative position to say something more sophisticated than the usual directory. I don't think its totally successful. For example, why are "weblogs" the bridge region between "web counters" and "web applications" I guess it could be alphabetical!

Would that it were, then, trying to do this sophisticated thing, as opposed to simply visualizing the standard categorical tree. But what else could it do?
posted by rschram at 7:16 PM on November 22, 2000

I had no idea that Meg was corrupting a miner.
posted by dhartung at 10:27 PM on November 22, 2000