Over on his Deviant Art profile, Martin Vargic has imagined such a place with “The Map of the Internet,” an exhaustively detailed map featuring places like the Spam Ocean and an island country known as BitTorrent.

Vargic, a student and amateur graphic designer from Slovakia, told The Huffington Post he originally was inspired to create the map after seeing xkcd’s Map of the Internet in 2010. Vargic started by increasing the scale and creating a new model based off National Geographic maps, working 10 hours a day for three weeks. The result, according to Vargic, is still a work in progress.

“The map is divided into two main parts; software companies, gaming companies and some of the real-world oriented websites are located on the right part of the map, or ‘the old world,’” Vargic told HuffPost in an email. “The websites and majority of Internet itself is located on two eastern continents, the upper one showing social networks, forum websites, blogs, and the lower one filled with adult-oriented websites and Internet crime.”

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It’s pretty and clever, but I don’t think it gives a good picture.

One of the problems with mapping that has existed since the beginning of diagrams drawn in the dirt, right up to the amazing possibilities of GIS is that it’s really difficult to record temporal data. A snapshot yes, but as part of a dynamic system maps don’t do very well.

I’m pretty sure that the kingdoms of Google and Facebook should be much larger. However they are likely to diminish in the future.

everyone loves a map

they’ve left out the wastelands of myspace

Yes, I want to do a ye olde wold map like that of the redoubt with ye olde names for the topographic features like dingle starry.

I collected so many maps when I used to travel a lot for work. All sorts from hand drawn things to maps of star homes to just city maps. I had to ditch a whole bunch of the more common ones, but I do love a map.. and still have some spectacular ones… it started when my dad gave me a painstakingly hand drawn and coloured map of the world he did as a youngster… I’ll have to go dig that out and take a photo… it was pretty good for a bloke who didn’t have the internet to help.

>>it was pretty good for a bloke who didn’t have the internet to help.<<

Before the Internet, there were atlases. And you could put tracing paper over the map and copy the outline…

Star homes wot like Andromeda? :p

buffy said:

>>it was pretty good for a bloke who didn’t have the internet to help.<<

Before the Internet, there were atlases. And you could put tracing paper over the map and copy the outline…

I still use my atlas. Often it’s much quicker than the net. And a lot more portable too.

buffy said:

>>it was pretty good for a bloke who didn’t have the internet to help.<<

Before the Internet, there were atlases. And you could put tracing paper over the map and copy the outline…

you’ll have to ask my dad how he did it… but he;s been dead for 28 years

>>I still use my atlas.<<

We have a good big reference atlas and we still use it too. Google maps is useful, but for beautiful maps, an atlas is betterer.

Which reminds me, I want to check the distance on mapometer of a ride I might do tomorrow morning.

Divine Angel said:

Star homes wot like Andromeda? :p

Andromeda lives in a lovely little townhouse situated at the very edge of town

They had atlases a long way back……I reckon my Mum (now almost 84) probably still has her school atlas somewhere.

These days I use a GPS and MapInfo to produce maps. MapInfo is dreadful to use, but boy is it powerful program. And it is so much better than the older methods – like smudging India ink onto transparent paper, etc…

Well, the english-speaking-internet world map perhaps.

Tamb said:

I still use my atlas. Often it’s much quicker than the net. And a lot more portable too.

Haha. Maybe if your still living in late last quarter 2012. :)

I think the “smart-” mechanic of the last few years is revolutionary in a way which isn’t really generally acknowledged.

I couldn’t imagine consulting a street directory these days, when I can, in a matter of seconds, vocally tell my phone to guide me to any destination on the planet, and it will reliably do so.

I still use my huge-arse Atlas, but only because I like maps.