Facebook intern creates visual map

A Facebook intern (they don’t pay him anything for this stuff??) has created a visual map of Facebook friendships all over the world. Paul Butler took a sample of 10 million users and color coded and weighted connections, accounting for longitude and latitude.

A rough outline of the world was created. Amazing.

“I was a bit taken aback by what I saw. The blob had turned into a surprisingly detailed map of the world. Not only were continents visible, certain international borders were apparent as well. What really struck me, though, was knowing that the lines didn’t represent coasts or rivers or political borders, but real human relationships,” Butler wrote on a Facebook page.

Notice that China and Russia are visibly missing? Much of the Middle East and Africa obviously isn’t on Facebook as well. Still, this is really neat and this kid should probably be a full-time employee.