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June 11, 2008

City Distances

citydistances.jpg How often are 2 or more cities mentioned on the web in the same sentence, or web page? Does this textual/contextual proximity indicate anything palpably similar about the places? This visualization represents an outstanding connection between New York City and London, far surpassing any other relationships on the map (the algorithm is fairly complex, but basically the score goes up the farther away the paired places are). I'm curious what role the English language (or English place names) plays in this study, and to what degree the internet has, or hasn't, expanded beyond these confines. Does this map simply show us that the 2 major cultural (as well as population and connectivity) capitals of the English speaking world are often mentioned in the same breath? I'd like to see a visualization representing the frequency of the most common place names mentioned on the web (maybe the top 1000 or so), which places are simply the most talked about in general?

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