infographics images

Using a mindmap-style visual interface, WhatDoYouSuggest.com shows you the search results from Google in an easy-to-use interface.  Created by Simon Elvery, the interface returns the top words that Google suggests based on your initial query.  By clicking on the relevant words, the search becomes more relevant, and more words are suggested to narrow your search.
Both the order of words and the thickness of the lines are meaningful.  More detailed information is available on the Simon’s blog.
 

What Do You Suggest takes a seed from you (or gives you something random) then guides you on a journey through language and the collective lives of Google users.
Using data from Google to make suggetions on where you might like to go next, What Do You Suggest is an experimental and interactive environment designed to explore how we use language and search on the internet.

The words that appear first in each set of options are the words Google thinks are most likely to be what people are looking for.
The words joined by the thickest lines are ones which will produce the most results if you searched for them on Google.

 
Of course, I had try see what “infographics” cam up with…

Found on Information Aesthetics and Gizmodo.
 

In a follow up to his McDonald's map, Stephen Von Worley of Weather Sealed maps the dominating burger chains across the United States. McDonald's obviously has a stronghold in a lot of areas but not all of them. Most noticeable is Sonic Drive-in with over 900 restaurants in Texas alone. Personally, I'm rooting for Carl's Jr. and In-n-Out.
[via We Love Datavis]

EPCOR, the water utility company that runs the fountains up in Edmonton, Canada released this graph yesterday. It's water consumption during the Olympic gold medal hockey game, overlaying consumption of the previous day. How much do Canadians love their hockey? A lot.
The first period ends. Time to pee. The second period ends. Time to pee. The third period ends. Time to pee. Consumption goes way down when Canada wins and during the medal ceremony.
Finally, when it's all said and done, the rest of the country can relieve itself, figuratively and literally.
[via contrarian | thanks, @statpumpkin]

The Infographic World Summit is beginning at Pamplona. The jury has already decided the winners of the Malofiej Awards. I'm sure some of these examples got awards. They are sent by Tiago Jokura as part of the fantastic job of the people of the brazilian magazine Mundo Estranho.Mundo Estranho is one of the magazines that makes more and better infographics. It is a divulgation magazine for youth, and their infographics really explain things.These are the names of the journalists that have made these works: the chief (Redatora-Chefe) is Patricia Hargreaves, the text editors Lauro Henriques Jr., Marina Motomura and Tiago Jokura. The Art Editor, Fabricio Miranda and the designers Bernardo Borges and Diego Sanches.Also, yu can follow the magazine on Twitter, at @mundoestranho.Congratulations to the authors for these great graphics. I'm sure we'll see some of them on the next Malofiej book.And the next one, ElUniversal.comShare

David McCandless, from Information Is Beautiful created this treemap of selected highlights from the BBC budget for the Guardian Datablog.

Recent controversy about the budget of the BBC here in the UK made me curious about its spending. Here’s the BBC-o-Gram, a visualization I created for the Guardian Datablog, exploring the costs of running one of the biggest broadcasters in the world.

David has also posted the underlying data in a GoogleDocs spreadsheet.

From an article in New Scientist titled “The writing on the cave wall”, this infographic shows that many symbols and figures used in cave-wall paintings have similar forms.

What emerged was startling: 26 signs, all drawn in the same style, appeared again and again at numerous sites (see illustration). Admittedly, some of the symbols are pretty basic, like straight lines, circles and triangles, but the fact that many of the more complex designs also appeared in several places hinted to von Petzinger and Nowell that they were meaningful - perhaps even the seeds of written communication.
A group of 26 symbols crops up at Stone Age sites throughout the world – are these the origin of the written word?

Found on Chart Porn

Big news for all you Edward Tufte fanboys and girls. He will be joining the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel who will advise The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. The Board's purpose is to track and explain how the $787 billion in stimulus funds is being put to use.
I'm doing this because I like accountability and transparency, and I believe in public service. And it is the complete opposite of everything else I do. Maybe I'll learn something. The practical consequence is that I will probably go to Washington several days each month, in addition to whatever homework and phone meetings are necessary.
Whether Tufte will have a direct impact on graphs like these, I'm not so sure, but it certainly won't hurt. I mean the man does know a thing or two about dispersing information.

Another one from Dubai: Danesh Mohuiddin, sends some of the works he have published for XPRESS, an english weekly publication of the Emirate.You can watch more examples, with some illustrations, at his own blog.The style reminds me Mundo Estranho, the brazilian magazine, which will be next in this section.The jury of this edition of Malofiej are already arriving to Pamplona. This friday, the winners will be announced. So good luck to everybody.And the next one, as I told you before, Mundo Estranho (Brazil)Share

Footprints - Every building footprint, and nothing else, in Montgomery County, Ohio. It's interesting how buildings can define an area.
Data, data everywhere - The Economist reports on the explosion of big data and the challenges that come with it.
Q&A With Shawn Allen of Stamen Design - Always interesting to hear from these guys [thx, tim].
The Case For An Older Woman - Another thoughtful analysis from the okcupid group on why men should be more open-minded to dating older women.

There's this article on CNN, from The Frisky, that has this little theory about who is most likely to win the Oscar for best actor:
[T]he Oscar generally goes to the dude who has the most best actor and best supporting nominations under his belt already.
That seemed like a curious statement. Didn't Forest Whitaker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Jaimie Foxx recently win on their first nominations for the coveted award? Okay, so Hoffman was actually up against a bunch of other newbies, but what about the rest?
Only 10 out of the past 29 winners, or just over a third, had the most nominations their year. Take a look at the data since 1980. Is the theory valid? You decide.

Of course when Jeff Bridges wins tonight, the theory authors will declare victory, but oh well.
Just for fun let's take a poll:

Who will win the Oscar for best actor?





Jeff Bridges



George Clooney



Colin Firth



Morgan Freeman



Jeremy Renner





View Results

It was a good month for FlowingData. We passed the 30k-reader mark, and I think this past month was an all-time high for pageviews. Thanks again. everyone for reading and sharing FlowingData.
I also managed to switch servers (semi-) successfully while updating the FD homepage in the process. Make sure you check that out if you haven't already, and let me know what you think in the comments.
In case you missed them, here are the most popular posts from last month ranked by a combination of views, comments, and trackbacks. I especially enjoyed a lot of the thoughtful discussion that came out of these posts.

Track Mouse Activity On Your Computer
How a Giant Shark Took Down an Airplane
Data Underload #9 - Big Graphic Blueprint
Where Bars Trump Grocery Stores
Excessively Labeled Airplane Tells You Where the Big Cheese Sits
Think like a statistician - without the math
Road to Recovery - Is the Recovery Act working?
Data Underload #8 - Unsolicited
An Easy Way to Make a Treemap
Challenge: make this graph easier to read

From the Forums
There was also some good stuff going on in the forums with a couple of job postings and some data goodies.
Data Visualization Guru - Energy group EnergyHub is looking for someone who can help visualize their data.
Interactive Data Visualization help needed - So is FrogDesign, but for a smaller project.
Visual Architects Contest - Do you have what it takes to win?
WinterOlympicMedals - The Olympics are over, but that doesn't mean you have to stop playing with several decades of medal data [thanks, annie]

Simple yet effective. Any questions? [via 9gag | Thanks, Barry]