XKCD-Inspired Cartoon Maps the World's Social Networks [PIC]

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The quirky and amusing aspect is hardly surprising, because this map — titled the "2010 Social Networking Map" — was inspired by geeky-yet-popular web comic XKCD's once sort-of-viral "Map of Online Communities."

The original was made based on the whims of XKCD's author, but marketing firm Flowtown took the idea and ran with it for this 2010 variation, sizing the various regions (each named after a social network) based on info collected or published by USA Today, Alexa, Compete and other sources.

The firm also provides commentary on trends with its humorous names — for example, the "Former Kingdom of MySpace," the "Receding Glaciers of AOL and Windows Live," the "Rising Island of Google Buzz" and the "Land of Defunct Social Networks."

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