Subway Stations of the Internet

This is the top left corner of Web Trend Map 2007 Version 2. It's based on the Japanese subway system. The creators are Information Architects, a Japan-based design agency.

They took the top 200 tech (definitely tech) sites and placed them along subway lines. The lines are used to group together similar services. For example along the blue Community line there's Facebook, Xing (think European Linkedin), Vox and LinkedIn. Each one also has a weather forecast and an incremental web number. The more suns and less clouds represent a positive prediction about a site's future.

I had to smile at the fun the Information Architects had. Here is some of the Tokyo symbolism that they put into the map:

1. Google has moved from Shibuya, a humming place for young people, to Shinjuku, a suspicious, messy, Yakuza-controlled, but still a pretty cool place to hang out (Golden Gaya).
2. Youtube has conquered Shibuya.
3. Microsoft has moved to Ikebukuro, if you know what I mean.
4. Yahoo is in Ueno, a nice place but nothing going on there.

Ouch.

I think that I'll be playing with the clickable startup page; I've already found several sites that I was not aware of.

[via Valleywag]