The internet map: Websites illustrated according to traffic and user activity

Internet Map

Well, productivity, you had a good run. But unfortunately for everyone with actual stuff to do today, a fantastic time waster has appeared on the web, and it threatens to turn everyone into mindless page surfers for eternity. It's called The Internet Map, and it just might be the best tool yet for finding sites you've never even heard of.

The map is comprised of the top 350,000 websites from around the world, organized into groups based on country and genre. The more popular a site is, the larger its dot will be. As you can imagine, heavyweights like Google, Yahoo, and Facebook have some mighty large real estate on the map, but the seemingly endless smaller dots are a treat to explore. You can even search the map for a specific website, and then browse its virtual neighborhood to find other sites you may enjoy.

The map uses a pretty advanced algorithm to determine the placement of each site, and its creator — a Russian man named Ruslan Enikeev — has been working on the map as a non-commercial labor of love. You can check out the map, and even donate some cash to keep the servers up and running, at The Internet Map website.

This article was written by Mike Wehner and originally appeared on Tecca