As I've been digging deeper into the data I've gathered on 210 million
public Facebook profiles, I've been fascinated by some of the patterns
that have emerged. My latest
visualization shows the information by location, with connections
drawn between places that share friends. For example, a lot of people in
LA have friends in San Francisco, so there's a line between them.
Looking at the network
of US cities, it's been remarkable to see how groups of them form
clusters, with strong connections locally but few contacts outside the
cluster. For example Columbus, OH and Charleston WV are nearby as the
crow flies, but share few connections, with Columbus clearly part of the
North, and Charleston tied to the South.
Some of these
clusters are intuitive, like the old south, but there's some surprises
too. For instance, Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas have closer ties to
Texas than Georgia.
To
make sense of the patterns I'm seeing, I've marked and labeled the
clusters, and added some notes about the properties they have in common.
Click on the map to learn more:
Pete Warden is the founder of Mailana Inc, a startup building
tools to help people connect. This post was first published
on his personal blog, and is republished here with permission.
