One million tweet map

Mommy, where do tweets come from?

Now, there’s an easy answer thanks to the one million tweet map.

Though this Mashable video ends with a Justin Bieber question, the map can be a media literacy tool, powerful for analyzing trends, how and where information flows, and perhaps, where and why it does not.

It may also be useful in identifying breaking hashtags and news even when they don’t initiate in the west.

The Maptimize-powered Twitter map uses Twitter’s API and updates internationally with every tweet.  When 20 new tweets are posted, the 20 oldest tweets fall off the back end.  Maps are accompanied by a list of the five most popular hashtags.

Data may be viewed as a heat or cluster map, and may be filtered by timeframe, keyword, and hashtag.   Users may zoom into more specific geographic locations and view what the most popular hashtags are in those spaces.

Another of my very favorite tools for identifying breaking twitter news is Mashpedia.

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