Tokyo Subway Map Adapted To Show Internet Power Structure

Google is the world’s busiest website — everyone knows this anyway, but now we can be sure, because it is represented by the world’s busiest transit station, Shinjuku, on the Tokyo metro map of the Internet.

A little outfit called iA has actually been doing these schematics for a few years now. But their latest effort–at least in terms of design value–is their best yet. It represents influential websites (333 of them) as stations along subway lines like “Application,” “Filter,” and “Sharing.” The network is a lightly-adapted version of Tokyo’s, with the height and width of each station showing how much it gets traffic it gets and how stable its user base is.

Somewhat arbitrary? Sure. And probably nothing you’d ever want put up on your wall? That too. (At our house there’s a strict rule against decorations that in any way represent or describe the activities of Steve Jobs.) But reading through it does entail the same delicious appeal of perusing a subway map–namely, it makes you want to plan trips. “Let’s see…,” you might muse. “If I wanted to go from The Onion to eHarmony, it looks like I’d only have make a quick changeover at Facebook…” How’s that for accuracy?