Mapping the Blogosphere

If the Internet is a new kind of social space, what does it look like? That’s a question of particular interest to social scientists eager to see what cyberspace might reveal about the nature of human behavior. Matthew Hurst, director of science and innovation for Nielsen BuzzMetrics, a company that analyzes Internet trends for businesses, has created a map of more than a thousand of the most popular blogs, essentially showing what he calls “the core of the blogosphere.” (below, image courtesy of Matthew Hurst) The size of the circles on Mr. Hurst’s map indicates the numbers of links to the blogs. The colors of the circles show the type of blog software used or on what kind of server the sites are hosted, telling technology-oriented researchers the more popular servers and software. The map indicates that the most linked-to blogs focus on technology and social-political commentary. An article in this week’s Chronicle explores several emerging maps of cyberspace. —Jeffrey R. Young