Artist maps out the Internet into countries, continents

Back in 2010, popular web comic xkcd created a Map of the Internet, giving a rough idea of which countries and companies owned which IP addresses. The project has inspired a much more ambitious undertaking by amateur Slovakian graphic artist Jay Simons, who has created this incredibly detailed map of all the biggest players online today, in the style of an antique world map.

As a history buff and owner of the website History Rundown, which analyses various historical events and debates the veracity of historical accounts, Simons blended his interests in graphic design and historical documentation in this project, dubbed Map of the Internet 1.0. While it isn't exactly ancient history, Simons' project is an interesting snapshot of the current "landscape" of the online world, showing major players and events of the online world including the Alexa Top 500 Global Sites, a timeline of the Internet's history and worldwide Internet penetration.

Simons says that this map was drawn largely using Adobe Photoshop, and he'll be releasing the next version of the map sometime in February, with even more detail.

To see the full sized, high-resolution version of the image, visit Simons' DeviantART page. You can purchase a poster version of Simons' Map of the Internet 1.0 on Zazzle.