'New York' (nee Tokyo) Subway Map of the Internet

  Subway Map of the Internet  (aka Tokyo)
  uploaded by Orli Yakuel

pretty cool "visualization" of the major internet companies, overlaid using a map of popular Tokyo Subway lines.  the original photo is here, from a Japanese division of Information Architects.  (larger pics here & here)

it's fun picking out different companies... kind of a trip down memory lane for me.  after 10+ years of Internet insanity i actually know a friend or two at most of the "stops" ;)    i added a few company tags, but there lots more. hopefully Orli Yakuel doesn't mind if we add a few.

(btw: the pic is currently titled "New York Subway Map of the Internet", however that's definitely Tokyo.... the Main Line is the Yamanote Line, which is the main circular route in downtown Tokyo.  i use that subway line pretty often when i visit my wife's family in Japan.)

UPDATE: The original IA.jp site has a lot of inside jokes on where the Company stations are located, and how they relate to the cultural (or not) activities & people going on in those Tokyo locations.  Google & YouTube are at cool, hip locations like Shinjuku & Shibuya, while Yahoo & Microsoft are in more mundane locations like Ueno & Ikebukuro ("Yahoo is in Ueno, a nice place but nothing going on there").  ouch.

oh well, my wife's family lives near Ueno, and one time we took Dante to a really wonderful aquarium in Ikebukuro... and i still like Yahoo & Microsoft :)

Comments

[Ian Kennedy]

Nice observation. I just spent the last hour checking this out and it's obviously well thought out. Amazon is in Idabashi where you'll find a lot of publishing houses and I guess they think Facebook's a bit boring (like a bank) so they put it in Otemachi. I believe MyBlogLog is in a neighborhood where you'll find lots of animation shops.