Sunday, February 05, 2006

Going international (part 2)


I have talked before about Clustrmap's remarkable plug-in for blogs which shows where in the world the people who view your blog are located. Don't worry, all I know is what the maps shows me, I'm not tracking you down to your place of residence or gainful employment. The CIA/NSA/MI5/Mossad/ΕΥΠ etc. have already done a much better job of that than moi.

Paranoia aside, I think that it's the first time that I've really understood the concept of the flat Earth (no, I'm not about to argue if we sail West we'll fall off the edge of the world). Rather the belief that the internet has negated physical distance and natural obstacles, so that it is no more difficult to talk (or do business) with somebdy in Beijing that it is to talk to the person living next to you.

As you can see on the map the site has been viewed by people from,

Greece
Russia
Spain
France
Portugal
Germany
Uk
Sweden
Finland
China
Japan
Brazil
New Zealand
Usa
Canada (possibly, hard to tell for sure)

I can't think of what other medium or any other period in history in which an ordinary person would have been able to come into contact with such a geographially diverse bunch with only minimal technical knowledge and at no cost. If that isn't remarkable I don't know what is ?

To everyone out there who has viewed this site I'd like to says thanks and I hope it has helped and/or entertained you in some way. If it hasn't, thanks anyway since you've done my ego the world of good.

No comments: