Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave . . .

July 10, 2007 11:28am by

When we practise to blog! (With all due apologies to Sir Walter Scott).

This very cool java app is a relational toy from Touchgraph. They use Google’s network of connectivity between websites to display what sites you are connected to:

I get different responses depending upon whether I use the top level URL (http://bigpicture.typepad.com/) or the sub-levels (Real Estate, Economy, etc.)

This is the bigpicture.typepad.com/comments. Note the middle left side purple are DRM/digital media related links, while the bottom center green  all Housing related. Economics gets kinda buried in the center pile.

Tbp_touchgraph

(FYI: I seem to make it crash every 3rd request, but I run a dozen apps at once . . .)

Years ago, I looked at a very cool software company that did something very similar to this. Gotta dig that up . . .

via Econbrowser

Here’s what the top level URL (bigpicture.typepad.com) generates:

Note all the econ stuff is the lower center green sector

Touchgraph_top

 

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  1. ECONOMISTA NON GRATA commented on Jul 10

    Yes indeed….. I wonder if a similar graph can be made for derivativess….

    Ouch….! Dat derre dollar is taking it in the cojones today… I wonder what Mr. Bernake can tell us that the market is not already saying…..?

    Econlicious

  2. e_b_a_l commented on Jul 10

    a meta search engine kartoo.com shows results in a similar manner.

  3. fiat lux commented on Jul 10

    That is very cool indeed.

  4. patf commented on Jul 10

    ‘very cool software company’ – was that at http://www.grokker.com?

    The ‘grok’ presumably being the grok from Heinlein’s book. Noted in the paper the other day that Heinlein just turned 100.

    As I return to Grokker now, for the first time in a long while, I see that there are no edges on their graphs (there used to be). I looked up “Norilsk Metal” which was a fascinating article in last Sunday’s NYT. Another Russian oligarch disappropriated of his empire by Putin & Co. as they bring more of the strategic assets of the economy under govt control.

    I also note that Grokker can no longer draw their data from Google. Yahoo, Wikipedia and Amazon – yes. But not Google. I would presume that this is significant (one can imagine the glint in Google’s eye).

    Anyway, we use these kinds of graphs in-house. I’m a programmer for a finance firm. They may be other names but we call them ‘force directed graphs’. The edges have a ‘tensive’ value attached to them which allows the graph (to some extent) to self-organize. Think of the edges as containing springs. And then you can parameterize those edges with differing kinds of values.

    But (to the brief extent that I checked) Grokker no longer (at least visibly – so maybe under-the-hood) has the edges. Still it’s clear that some kind of weighting(s) has occurred.

    pat

  5. b commented on Jul 10

    Java application demanding some signe applet-

    Fugettit!

  6. Scytale commented on Jul 10

    Bur with practice, by and by,
    You’ll tell a most convincing lie.

  8. Jim Bergsten commented on Jul 10

    James Burke, the “Connections” guy, has been using this sort of technology to, well, provide visual links between historical figures to show the (sigh) connections between them. There was a sample app somewhere on the web, forgot where I put the link to it, but here’s a YouTube description from the man his own self:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWxHC_8yBrc

  9. C. Maoxian commented on Jul 10

    Looks cool and I’d love to try it but it has crashed my Firefox five times in a row — I give up!

  10. patf commented on Jul 10

    Go to http://www.grokker.com

    Choose a ‘good subject’. Enter that. Then dig in till you find the graph.

    Grooker looks way cool.

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