FAQ

Q. Can you give me and others a idea of how the map 
is designed? is it by DNS?

A. Yes it Maps the DNS Domain Name System.
   Each IP Number of the 4.3 billion numbers in the DNS show
   as a CUBE or square or cell.  Users get to put any label
   or picture on the Cube and link it to any web address.


Q. What is the easiest way to view it as a whole entity?

A. The Galaxy Map feature shows an overview of the current galaxy,
where each cube is represented by a single colour coded pixel.
This display shows the structure of several thousand domains in
a single view.  This is a practical view, where each row is clickable.
A perfect one-to-one picture of all 4.3 billion addresses would take
over 3000 screens at 1280 x 1024 resolution !

In Map mode, you can set the height and width of the grid display.
Enter W=50 or W=100 for a wider grid, W=256 to map entire rows,
and then use your scroll bar to see hundreds of cubes.


Q. How are new additions generated? What a huge undertaking.

A. Automatically or by user request.

There are 3 aspects: Technical tool, Search engine, Speculative.

TECHNICAL
Map of the Internet lets you view the DNS structure as 3D
cyberspace, and browse around every possible IP.  Each cube
is an IP with 256 IP's LISTed numerically in a row.  Usually
the cubes on each row are from the same ISP.  Many ISP's have
several rows, and the larger ones have entire floors (256 x 256).

When a user moves around the map of cyberspace, the program
does a DNS lookup for each IP in that area and labels each
cube with its resulting DOMAIN NAME.

Some ISP's or administrators fail to, or choose not to, assign
the RDNS Reverse Lookup, so a lookup on a given IP will not
resolve to a domain name, yet given a domain name, an IP number
can always be found.  If there is no RDNS the MAP will show that
IP as a BLANK cube, even though there may be several working
sites being hosted there.

Some ISP's are assigning multiple aliases to a single IP,
or even have dynamic changing IP assignments.  The MAP will 
use only the first or primary result to label a cube, at
this time.

A good example of this is 
host commondreams.org   ---> results in 216.65.91.116
host 216.65.91.116 ---> results in host116.hostcentric.com

The MAP allows users to customize the cubes, to aesthetically
override and remap the real DNS results, to link to any other
IP, domain, website, or web object URL.  They can also change
the text on the cube, or supply a .jpg .gif or .mov image to
be displayed as the cube.  The cubes have no borders so several
cubes can be tiled seamlessly together to display very large
images.

Each cube has 3 links: the numeric IP, the Domain
Name as returned by DNS, and the verbatim contextual
override link derived by user configuration or based
on the current query, via the VISIT button.
i.e. COMMONDREAMS.ORG ---> VISIT launches COMMONDREAMS.ORG
but COMMONDREAMS.ORG ---> Click on top left cubetop
does not launch COMMONDREAMS.ORG due to RDNS pointing
to hostcentric.com

SEARCH ENGINE
No search engine knows the complete internet.  Most
are sub-sets of the internet, a database of links that
someone or some robot knows about.  Many are human
filtered based on opinion and further limited by
content, language and geographic location.

Mapoftheinternet.com does not map or limit via geographic 
location or site contents.  Most other 'Internet Maps' display
the geographic density and interconnectivity of the internet.

These can look pretty, but are not too useful.  Certainly there
are thousands of points from City to City and lots of connections
in Europe and North America and few connections in Africa.
Such maps merely parallel the population and industrialization
statistics.

Instead Map of the Internet is both white pages and yellow
pages.  A white page phone book lists all names and
coresponding number.  A REVERSE LOOKUP phone
book, lists the numbers numerically and then shows
the coresponding name.  This is the same for the
Map of the Internet where all IP numbers are LISTed numerically
with the coresponding names displayed on cubes.

A yellow pages phone book allows advertising with
graphics and colours, by subject.  The advert
size may be a small text listing or a 1/8 page or
1/4 page or 1/2 page or full page etc.

Mapoftheinternet.com allows users to obtain as many
cubes as they want, to display as large of adverts as
they want, where ever they want.  Each cube can
be set to link to a specific web page, and
descriptive text and keywords, can be attached
to aid searching.

.MAP addresses can be obtained to allow short
convenient, easy to remember names that map to
convoluted long tilde ridden URL's, as is often
used by free hosting services.

Most search engines automatically derive the
keywords and categorization of the sites it
finds, and uses such to rate the site.  Site
owners and surfers are un-able to edit or
improve the listing.  This can put your site
on a low rating if you don't physically have
the text content to trigger a higher rating.  For
example, a site with a picture of Mona Lisa might
never be found unless the site has substantial text
about the subject.

With Map of the Internet, users can attach description and
keywords which do not necessarily appear anywhere on
their actual web site.  Users can configure the cubes to
display logo's or pictures, banners, and indeed graphics of
any size, and combine these cubes in various ways to
build 3D structures in cyberspace that reflect their
content or intentional community.

Information overload is a problem for all search
systems, as the resulting lists are larger than the
user's screen.  Typically a search engine will list
10 text entries per page.  The MAP displays 50 cubes
on a 1024 x 768 display, and lists thousands of
results in a concise list.  Expert searchers get
to know cyberspace by *feel* and relative location,
as we do on city streets.  We don't necessarily 
read all the store signs along a street, we just
learn by experience what is located beside, or near,
other stores.


SPECULATIVE
Buy low, sell high !  Just as some domain names are
selling for millions of dollars, so can certain map cubes.
Buy up cubes before the big names do.  They might
buy from you, at your set price.

Users moving around the map will often visit the
cubes that are immediately beside the one that
brought them there in the first place, just like
we might visit the stores in a mall that are near
the one we purposely shop at.

.....
New features arel being released including...
- Handling of multiple alias domains to single IP.
- Verified browsing mode to surf just valid
  websites that respond... less server 404 errors.
- Advanced search.  New flexible and comprehensive,
  wild card searching, by country code, subject, content etc.
- New metaphors, graphic and display options.
- Introduce 3D views via XML graphic scaling & rotation.
- CyberRealtor system to manage cube re-sales.
.....

Interesting things to try:


- Why are so many domain prefixed with
     Greek god names like ZEUS ?
      and nearby you'll likely find more
       Greek names like HERCULES


- Find interesting prefix names like 'VOODOO' 
  on government domains 
   Try it  (256 wide, scroll right)


- Find abandoned entries
    server down but DNS entry still up ?


- See interesting patterns of the DNS
   in the Galaxy Map Long Range Scan Overview
   Try it


- Admire admin patterns, structures, rhythms, spacing...
   (Compress OFF and set 100 wide)
   Try it


- See who else is on a particular ISP or CLASS IP Block.


- Spot the RED cubes !

- Spot other RED cubes !!

- See thousands of RED cubes !!! (Galaxy Map)



- See related product sites e.g. Food brands (WIDTH 256 HEIGHT 4)
  Try it... Scroll right or left...


- nearby... an aliased tobacco company...
  Try it... Scroll right or left...


- Lots of product brand sites from famous companies...
  Try it... Scroll right or left...


- A row of famous rock star music sites by a famous record label...
  Try it... Scroll right or left...


- Find cubes of the sites of your workplace, hometown,
  favorite companies, shops, entertainers, church, school etc...
  Change the cubes to show up the way you want.


- Find cubes of the sites of your competitors, spammers,
  least favorite companies, governments etc.  
  Change the cubes to show up the way you want.


- Find all the sites that you know on the map.
  Change the cubes to show up the way you want.

MAPOFTHEINTERNET.COM