It's the second time they've done it, and it's certainly interesting: Information Architects Japan, a design agency based in Tokyo, has produced a map of the Web based on the Tokyo underground. You can now pore over it, download it in a range of sizes (click here for 1600x1024), get an A3 PDF, click on the clickable version, or buy the A2 printed poster for $25.
No, it's not what you'd do if you were trying to produce an objective version, but it does make some sense if you follow the different lines. The brighter green line, for example, is News. That will help if you're looking for The Guardian.
iA comments:
There are less insider jokes about the different stations and more consistency within the connections and the neighborhood of the different sites. People who know Tokyo will still find lots of little hints and sarcastic comments hidden in there.
For example, "Yahoo is in Ueno, a nice place but nothing going on there."
The post says:
You might have noticed that we had to take off the inverted Tokyo Metro logo as featured in an early version of the first trend map. They asked us to take it off. We respect the decision of the Tokyo Metro Corporation, but we still believe that it is not a smart move for them. The map has been downloaded 10,000 times and has been featured in the traditional and online media all around the world.
Now you can spend the rest of the day making a map of the Web in the UK, based on London's tube map.... The question is, which station would be The Guardian, and which the BBC?
