Newsmap

I scoped this graphically spectacular news trend map application from two rows behind a kid in my Political Science class Monday. This thing pops so hard that pulling it up on your screen should get the attention of wandering eyes dozens of yards away.

This map is an data visualization offering from the Japanese graphic design and information design firm Maramushi. This application is an effort to codify the content of the Google News aggregator into a visual interface. Content areas are color coded with varying color temperatures to measure currency of the headlines. An aggregator is a mechanism that harvests RSS feeds from, respected news agencies, independent blogs and podcasts.

The Google News aggergator represents the collection of of a huge array of respected syndicated news feeds and thus offers a good cross section of reporting trends across the Internet. Varying box sizes containing common headlines indicate how many articles related to or on the topic have streamed into Google New's Aggregator.