mapping the blogosphere

Here's an idea that I wish someone else would implement.

I would like to see a map of the blogosphere. Who links to whom.

It could take the form of a Venn Diagram, or a road map, with different color lines for two-way and one-way communication, or some other form that I can't visualize. It couldn't take in the entire blogosphere - I suppose that would be impossible, as it's fluid - but it could represent a good-sized chunk.

I was thinking how when I visit a blog, that blogger and I share some readers, and not others. And how a few clicks will land you in an entirely different blog country. When I visit Crabletta, I see G, Rob and Sleepybomb, who read wmtc, but I also see arse poetica, who probably doesn't. I visit Zydeco Fish, who also visits G, but maybe doesn't visit Crabbi. A new reader, Niobium, found wmtc through (I think) Barbara from California (who I found randomly), and is now turning up at Library Bitch, among other places. Barbara has a completely different readership - Niobium is the only link there. And so on, and so on.

And this, of course, is just one tiny corner of blogdom, the corner I see. Someone like Redsock adds an entire universe to the diagram, because he forms an intersection between leftist politics (and 9/11 inquiry) and baseball. He has two distinct readerships, with a small subset of overlap. A few of his baseball readers have found wmtc, and in turn, have found some of you. And so on and so on and so on.

I think a diagram of the blogosphere would be fascinating to see. I wish someone with the proper knowledge and resources would take it on. Perhaps someone is already working on it. If they are, I hope they find us!

P.S. If you want to try it on a small scale, you can create a Venn Diagram here.

Comments

  1. laura k24 July 2005 at 07:03

    But what you want isn't a Venn Diagram -- it's a social network diagram.

    Right! That's what I meant by "road map", but I didn't know the correct term for it. I remember long ago, when my mom was a teacher, she diagrammed the students in her classes this way.

    I imagine there are many ways you could represent this sort of thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Niobium24 July 2005 at 07:16

    Yes, I do believe I found you via Barbara from California. I'm one who likes to check out links to other blogs, which is how I found Library Bitch. I just started going through those links.

    As for Barbara, I think I found her off of another link but I'm not sure if it was through surfing or through curiosity.

    When people come to my blog, I always wonder how they got there. Sometimes it's easy to figure out, sometimes I can't figure it out at all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. zydeco fish24 July 2005 at 08:00

    Amazing. I have been carrying that thought around for quite a while, and even considered a post about it. That would be cool. Maybe someone could convince Google to do it.

    I assume Niobium found me via you. Cool.

    ReplyDelete
  4. laura k24 July 2005 at 08:04

    I have been carrying that thought around for quite a while, and even considered a post about it.

    Cool!

    Maybe someone could convince Google to do it.

    Or Blogger! (A division of Google.) Even if they only did Blogger blogs, for their own publicity, it would still be huge.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Niobium24 July 2005 at 09:09

    Yep, Zydeco, you're correct.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous26 July 2005 at 10:18

    Hmmm...lessee...

    I found LG via City in the Trees, which I found via Canadian Cynic, whom I found via Bitch, PhD, who I found via Matthew Yglesias, who I probably wandered across during the storms of links getting tossed around when the US was becoming overtly hostile to Canada back in early 2003. Even now, many of the blogfs I read I can only find by following established links via other sites-not every site has an easily remembered URL, after all.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous3 August 2005 at 18:51

    L-girl, I did arrive here via Crabletta's site, knowing Crabbi has impeccable taste and lured by the promise of your name. My partner and I took the skilled worker's test on Nov. 3rd, thinking we might have to make the move, too. Any shenanigans in '08, and we may be your next-door neighbors! Best of luck w/ your move. Not much longer now!

    ReplyDelete
  8. laura k3 August 2005 at 19:38

    Welcome, ae! How great to see you here. I think we can count on shenanigans in 08. If you do apply to Canada, be sure and let me know!

    ReplyDelete

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