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 GMAP Galaxy Map shows an overview of the current galaxy,
where each cube is represented by a single colour coded pixel.
This display shows the one-to-one structure of 16,777,216 IP cubes.
This is a practical view, where each dot is clickable.

A perfect one-to-one picture of all 4.3 billion addresses would take
over 3000 screens at 1280 x 1024 resolution !

On the Home page of The Map Of The Internet, the entire Universe Map
is shown in a single image that fits on your screen. Each dot is one
Floor for you to click on.

UMAP Universe Map lets you scroll around the entire Internet Universe
of the 4.3 billion cubes. Each dot is one cube for you to click on.

In Map GRID  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 from user queries, and by user configurations,
and from the fantastic MOTIbot scanning the far reaches of cyberspace.

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 RDNS Reverse lookup for each IP of the cubes in that area
and labels each cube with its resulting DOMAIN NAME.

When an ISP or administrator fails to, or chooses not to, assign
the RDNS Reverse lookup, the lookup for the given IP will not
resolve to an expected domain name. Yet given a Domain Name query,
an IP number can always be found.  If there is no RDNS Domain name,
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 MULTI multiple aliases to a single IP,
or even have dynamic changing IP assignments.  The MAP might 
use only the first or primary result to label a cube.

An example of mismatched DNS to RDNS is:
host commondreams.org   ---> results in 54.243.223.181
host 54.243.223.181     ---> results in Reverse DNS
---> ec2-54-243-224-182.compute-1.amazonaws.com
where commondreams.org Domain is hosted.

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 an image file like .jpg or .gif
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 - Click the INFO button to see and launch an IP link.

- The Domain Name as returned by DNS - Click the CUBETOP to launch.

- The verbatim contextual override URL link derived by the owner's
  configuration of the cube - OR - based on the current search query.
  Launch by clicking the the VISIT button.



SEARCH ENGINE
No search engine knows the complete internet.  Most are sub-sets of
the internet, a database of links that some group or some robots know
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 fewer 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 pages 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.

.MOTI 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 categories of the sites it finds, and uses such
data to rate and rank the sites, often by popularity.

Site owners and web surfers are un-able to edit or
improve the listing.  This can put your site on a low
ranking if you don't physically have the text content
to qualify for 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 readily display
32 cubes with an 8 x 4 grid. Or really any grid size
that may scroll off your screen.
 
The Map can list thousands of results in a concise list.
 Expert searchers get to know cyberspace by *feel* and
relative visual locations, as we do on city streets.
We don't necessarily read all the store signs or addresses
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 are 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,
  wildcard searching, by TLD, country code, subject.
- New metaphors, graphic and display options.
- Introduce 3D views via VR gamepad flight.
- 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 ?

- Find domains from countries that no longer exist.
  Try it

- 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...


- Famous rock star music sites from famous record labels...
  Try it...
  Try it...


- 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 where you want and the way you want.

MAPOFTHEINTERNET.COM