XKCD Updates Its Map: We No Longer Live In Actual Countries But Digital Ones

Sunday, 10 October 2010 06:47

XKCD Updates Its Map: We No Longer Live In Actual Countries But Digital Ones

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A lot has changed since illustrator Randall Monroe drew up the original XKCD “Map Of Online Communities” in 2007. In testament to how far we as Internet denizens have come, earlier this week XKCD updated its beloved classic to more accurately reflect the rapidly changing online world of 2010.

From Monroe in 2007:

“I’m waiting for the day when, if you tell

someone ‘I’m from the internet’ instead of laughing they just ask, ‘Oh what part?’“

Until that day is here (and it’s coming VERY soon, like tomorrow) here’s a quick state of the Internet union; In 2007 the most prominent digital countries were Myspace, Friendster, AOL, Live Journal and Xanga … In 2010? Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Skype, QQ, Happy Farm and Farmville. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose?

Um, Happy Farm? Yeah that’s right, Chinese MMOPG Happy Farm is bigger than Farmville on the most recent map based on an interesting Wikipedia statistic of 228 million users, which would make Farmville at 62 million monthly active users the “second biggest browser based social networking centered farming game in the world.”

Zoom in for hidden gems like “Social Media Consultant Channel” and “Bieber Bay.” Double zoom in for the island of TechCrunch/Crunch Gear, off the nothern tip of the Tech Blog peninsula.

Original 2007 map for comparison, below.