Representing data in visual flows and maps can make you assess large volumes of info quickly, and even let’s you discern patterns and correlations you wouldn’t normally be able to see.
Visualize current events with Newsmap – Populates Google News articles in a visual landscape. The more sources reporting on a particular topic or event, the larger it appears on the map. It’s interesting to compare Canadian news sources vs. USA news sources; according to Newsmap, the US media covers over five times as much US national stories than Canadian media covers Canadian stories. The major headline in Canada is a world story – “Iraqi cleric condemns mutilation of American’s bodies”. The biggest headline in the US is “9/11 commission looking into Clinton document request”.
Visualize fiction literature with Gnooks – Summarizes readerships of various authors in a visual chart. The closer two authors are to each other, the more readers they share (and by extension, novels penned by these authors may share common themes, proses or concepts). William Gibson (Neuromancer) is located very close to Frank Herbert(Dune), but not as closely as Neil Stephenson (Cryptonomicon). Surprisingly, fans of Gibson’s sleek, stylish cyberpunk also enjoy and H.G. Wells (War of the Worlds) and his dark turn-of-the-century sci-fi.
Visualize music with musicplasma – Connects music across genre boundaries via music artists. Who knew that most people who enjoy listening to U2 also like Dido.