It's official folks, we're a 7 billion strong family now

Many population based maps are available at this forum.

 

World Map (country size based on population figure) 

India Map (based on population figures), physical map given in faint outline.

Rajasthan, Gujarat, J&K, Uttranchal and most of the North East have shrunk drastically, whereas the metros have swelled up to hundreds of time of their physical size. Uttar Pradesh too has assumed a monstrous size.

Google Search Globe: some observations

Google Search Globe is available here

Google Search Globe  provides daily statistics on which parts of the globe search in which language and in how much volume. I choose to see Search Globe as a great interactive 3D globe which gives insights into which languages are dominant in which parts of the world for online searches.  Quite fun moving the World around. Needs WebGL in your browser.

Some observations on Google Search Globe:

• India searches only in English on google.com apparently. 

• Amongst the Indian cities Delhi uses google.com the most, followed by Bombay, Bangalore, Madras, Pune, Hyderabad and then Calcutta.

• Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Kolkotta do not exist

• Bangkok (??), Jakarta (???) and Istanbul (?????) search more than any Indian city

• Singapore searches in English and a bit in Chinese, Hong Kong in Chinese mostly.

• All of South America uses Spanish except Brazil which uses Portuguese. Though West Indies uses Spanish, English and Portuguese.

• Despite Spanish being the second most spoken language in the USA, all the google.com searches from the USA are in English.

• A lot of people somewhere on the USA-Canada border near Montana do not use English (but which language do they use? can't be French, too far from France and Quebec)

• Canada uses English though Quebec uses French (ugh!).

• Egypt is all about the Nile

• Most (net-connected google.com-using) Australians live on the East coast.

• Polynesia searches :)

• Atlantis still chooses to remain hidden from the rest of the world.

• One or more of these: population, internet access, preference for google.com are so low in Central Asia and Iran that the region appears almost uninhabited.

• Surprisingly UAE and Qatar perform a majority of their searches in English (expats perhaps), though predictably Saudi, Yemen, Kuwait and Egypt use Arabic.

• Sadly, Modern European Languages have completely killed of all Western European regional languages (Basque, Piedmontese, Langue d'Oc etc) in terms of net usage at least.

• Werewolves and vampires inhabit Transylvania (and Manhattan).

• North Korea, Tibet, Siberia, Sahara, Congo don't care much for the internet.

• Both Arctic and Antarctic Penguins happily agree to eschew all things net and Google.

• Highest search volumes originate from USA, Europe, and South America

• The filthy human race has spread to almost all parts of the planet Earth.

• I have much to travel.

More info on Google Search Globe here

I really like WebGL, it is a beautiful way to interact with 3D content through one's browser, without the need to install any softwares other than a decent browser. One can explore the human anatomy, the World' geography, play 3D games, interpret 3D data and what not. Some more wonderful WebGL applications by Google are available here

Map of Names of Recent Revolutions - Jasmine Revolution

I am forever in love with maps. While doing a little research about why the revolution in the Arab world is called the "Jasmine Revolution" I realized that in recent years many revolutions have often been given non-political, non-personal names. So I decided to make a map out of this knowledge of names of recent revolutions. 

Libya and Syria are now included in this map. As of today, the 9th of April 2011, the date of the revision of this map, Muammar Gaddafi and the revolutionaries are still fighting each other in Libya and no negotiations have been started. Last night I did listen to a senior ex-Gaddafi minister on Hard Talk who was confident that Gaddafi is not going to be able to hold out much longer and the revolution in Libya will be successful. The NATO-led coalition is still fighting against Gaddafi's mercenaries.

Meanwhile in Syria 20 protesters more were killed in Dera in their struggle to overthrow President Bashar Al Assad. No progress there either. Each promise for reform made by President Bashar Al Assad is followed by a fresh wave of violence against the protesters. It's almost as if a promise made is a clear hint towards fresh retribution. So Syria is still in a revolutionary limbo as of now. Though the situation could change.

The revolutions and their names shown in this map chronologically are:

1. Carnation Revolution, Portugal 1974

2. Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia and USSR 1989

3. Rose Revolution, Georgia 2003

4. Orange Revolution, Ukraine 2004

5. Tulip Revolution, Kyrgyzstan 2005

6. Jasmine Revolution, Arab World 2010-2011

The Jasmine Revolution is a term specifically for the Tunisian events and I don't think the protests and unrest taking place at various hot-spots in the Arab World have all been clubbed under the umbrella term Jasmine revolution as yet. However it was Mohamed Bouazizi's sacrifice which sparked the domino effect in Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen and Egypt. The tremors are being felt all over the region and in certain Asian regimes as well.

I hope that the Arab people find themselves in a much better position once their struggle is successful. I also hope that peace comes to these people soon.

Click on the map to view a larger image.

I may have missed some other names of revolutions and I would like to know about these if this is the case.

Feel free to use this map for any purpose you like, just link back here / give credit. Email me for bigger file size or other file formats (pdf,gif,png etcetera)