Twitter/Flickr usage maps of the world

July 14, 2011 9:27 AM

Ever wondered where Flickr and Twitter are used the most? Eric Fischer (previously, previouslier, previousliest) has created a new set of maps comparing geotagged Flickr images to geotagged Twitter posts.
posted by spitefulcrow (23 comments total)

San Francisco is pretty great. Apparently nobody tweets from the Marin Headlands, but everyone takes pictures there.
posted by spitefulcrow at 9:29 AM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Flickr should be magenta.
posted by panaceanot at 9:33 AM on July 14, 2011

I like how you can completely follow the L line well into Brooklyn based on tweets alone.
posted by The Whelk at 9:34 AM on July 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Apparently nobody tweets from the Marin Headlands, but everyone takes pictures there.

One notable thing about these graphs:

Geotagged photos are tagged *where they're taken*. Geotagged tweets are tagged *where they're sent*. You'll see a lot of photos and fairly few tweets in scenic places with bad phone reception, like the Marin headlands.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 9:35 AM on July 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

One notable thing about these graphs:

Geotagged photos are tagged *where they're taken*. Geotagged tweets are tagged *where they're sent*. You'll see a lot of photos and fairly few tweets in scenic places with bad phone reception, like the Marin headlands.
posted by tylerkaraszewski

Good point!

Related question - how do tweets WITHOUT geotagged data get represented (or do they)? I didn't see that information while scanning the article.
posted by jillithd at 9:38 AM on July 14, 2011

I've never been to Tokyo, but I'd bet you fifty billion internet dollars those paths leading into downtown Tokyo are train/subway lines, not roads. They have stops on 'em.
posted by subdee at 9:40 AM on July 14, 2011

I like how you can completely follow the L line well into Brooklyn based on tweets alone.

...and every other tweet in Canarsie is "fuck I fell asleep on the train again."
posted by griphus at 9:42 AM on July 14, 2011 [3 favorites]

Direct link to the entire set on flickr for those who don't want to give the Daily Mail any more pageviews than strictly neccessary.
posted by fight or flight at 9:42 AM on July 14, 2011 [6 favorites]

Some of those pics, especially the last few, remind me of pics of celestial phenomena (like galaxies).
posted by 3FLryan at 10:00 AM on July 14, 2011

(my imagination is running wild with comparisons)
posted by 3FLryan at 10:01 AM on July 14, 2011

I am so glad that I picked central New Brunswick, a virtual black hole on the map, for my vacation this year.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 10:03 AM on July 14, 2011

Oh yeah, I should have thought to use magenta to represent Flickr! Too late now... (Does Twitter have an official color?)

Tweets that aren't geotagged don't appear on these at all. It is just the ones that are geotagged with a specific point, not even ones with a bounding box but no point.

Yes, the Tokyo line going out to the west is train stations.
posted by enf at 10:53 AM on July 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

The Headlands are full of dead zones, cellphonewise. Even standing right at the top of Hawk Hill, getting and keeping a signal can be dicey. It's even worse on Slacker.
posted by rtha at 11:12 AM on July 14, 2011

I suspect the absence of tweets in public spaces actually reflects a difference in the precision with which Twitter and Flickr allow geotagging. None of the parks in NYC have a single tweet in them, which is pretty much unimaginable given how many "picnicking in the park!!" Facebook status updates I see. (I don't use Twitter, myself.)

My guess is that Twitter tags tweets only to street addresses, explaining the dearth of tweets inside parks and also how well the patterns map onto the street grid, while Flickr allows tagging based on coordinates.

I don't know if any of this is true but it's my hypothesis.
posted by dixiecupdrinking at 11:32 AM on July 14, 2011

Actually I'm wrong that none of the parks have any tweets in them. I would still guess those are tagged to locations on the roads inside the parks. The hypothesis can be saved yet!
posted by dixiecupdrinking at 11:34 AM on July 14, 2011

Also, it would seem from the NYC map that Flickr is used primarily by white (and Asian?) people in their 20s and 30s, while Twitter is used by a more diverse clientele. Pretty interesting.
posted by dixiecupdrinking at 11:37 AM on July 14, 2011

the dots that are floating around in the oceans and seas are pretty amazing...makes me want to go sailing.
posted by th3ph17 at 11:56 AM on July 14, 2011

Looks like the Staten Island Ferry is a popular source.
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:16 PM on July 14, 2011

This is way cooler than I expected (and I thought it would be at least moderately cool).
posted by shelleycat at 12:39 PM on July 14, 2011

Can anyone hazard a guess as to why Java seems so twitterful compared to the surrounding region?
posted by Winnemac at 2:08 PM on July 14, 2011

Also, it would seem from the NYC map that Flickr is used primarily by white (and Asian?) people in their 20s and 30s

The places photos are taken are not representative of where people live. Most likely nearly all of the Flickr photos were taken by people that do not live in NYC.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 2:57 PM on July 14, 2011

The places photos are taken are not representative of where people live. Most likely nearly all of the Flickr photos were taken by people that do not live in NYC.

The locals and tourists map of NYC.

Don't know why people who live in NYC would abstain from taking photos, and it doesn't seem like they do.
posted by oneirodynia at 7:07 PM on July 14, 2011

It's not so much the Staten Island Ferry that's of interest--it's people taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty.

There's also a vantage point from Staten Island where you can take nice photos that lights up as a bright spot.
posted by yellowcandy at 7:27 PM on July 14, 2011