Use The Internet to Better Understand the World

June 7, 2007

I’ve heard it said that humans aren’t capable of visualizing “infinity”. Take the universe, for example. Sure… we know what that is… that it’s infinite. We even know what infinite means. But can you really picture what that looks like?

The Internet is another of those unimaginable “things”. We all know what it is. But what does it “look” like? Where are all the bits and bytes coming from and going to?

The Internet is an excellent indicator of what’s going on in the world. More so than just about any other medium, the Internet reacts in real-time to major events, popular culture, and the trends that shape our lives.

But since it’s so hard to visualize and put into terms that’s easily digested by the human mind, all of that information is hard to process as a whole.

Luckily, there are a couple of ways to use the power of the Internet and modern technology to keep a finger on the pulse of our world. Not only can these tools help you get a better understanding of what’s going on around you… they’re really fun to play with!

AKAMAI: Visualizing the Internet

Akamai’s visualization tools are awesome in that they’re updated in almost real-time. There are six ways to visualize the Internet available: Real-Time Web Monitor, Network Performance Comparison, Visualizing Akamai, and three Network Usage Indexes (Retail, News, and Music).

The two that I’ve found most useful for gaining a better understanding of the world are the Real-Time Web Monitor and the News Usage Index. These tools show you where the most people are using the Internet at any given time and how “newsy” the world is, respectively.

The Web Monitor highlights areas of the world consuming the most Internet bandwidth at that very moment. It’s cool because I checked earlier in the day - when most Americans are at work - and usage in the country was generally low. I checked it again just now and The States are lit up with much higher usage… now that everyone is at home.

The News Index is even cooler because it shows you how much web traffic is being used to read the news. There’s a big graph and a speedometer-like indicator that shows how “heavy” the news traffic is that day. If something major is going on the world you can bet that speedometer will respond. Plus, there’s a list under all of the data readouts that show which news stories have generated the most Internet buzz.

GOOGLE: Trends

Google is arguably one of the biggest stockpiles of information about the world. It’s also one of the first places most people go to find out information on just about anything. Using Trends, you can see what people are searching for the most, and thus, get a picture of what’s popular all over the world.

The main Trends page is pretty simple. It looks almost like Google’s main page. From there you can enter any words you like and Google will show you a graph of how many people are looking for those words. It will also flag the graph with any events that seem to have affected the results (news stories, etc).

But my favorite part of Trends is the “Hot Trends” section. It shows a huge list of the 100 most popular search terms at the time you pull it up. Clicking on one of the terms will give you a graph like the one pictured above that shows changes in popularity, related news stories, blog posts, and website results that might be affecting the outcome.

So how do you use that? What do you think some of the most popular trends are going to be? That’s right - the stuff that’s important to the world at the moment.

We may not be able to visualize the entire universe. We might not be able to know what’s going on all across the world. Heck… we might not even be able to really get an idea of what the Internet “is”.

But these tools can help bring all of that information together for us and make the world seem a little less overwhelming and foreign.

Plus… like I said before… they’re really fun to play with!

Category Posted in On The Net, Society, Technology