Visual Maps of the World Wide Web

Summary

The difficulties of finding intellectual content in the multidimensional environment of the Internet pose new problems for the LIS professionals and for the users they seek to serve. Many Internet users report the “lost in cyberspace” phenomenon and print publishing has flourished surrounding users' need to find good intellectual content on the World Wide Web. This paper examines the cognitive aspects of arrangement and organization on the Internet and then examines some of the techniques being used to create maps of the intellectual content found there. Through many centuries, maps have been a helpful cognitive aid in providing a practical congruence between a large, three dimensional landscape and a portable, intuitive, two dimensional reference source. Some of the same features of maps are being used to provide some cognitive sense of the contents of special topical areas on the Internet and particularly the World Wide Web.