Philippines Shines in Facebook Global Reach Visualization Map, Literally

Ever wondered how a map of global Facebook relationships would look like?

Last Tuesday, Paul Butler - an intern in Facebook's data infrastructure engineering team - created and uploaded a map showing FB location data for pairs of friends around the world. He used white lights to represent towns and cities and blue streaks between them to identify linking FB relationships -- basically.

Quoting Butler,

After a few minutes of rendering, the new plot appeared, and 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. Each line might represent a friendship made while travelling, a family member abroad, or an old college friend pulled away by the various forces of life.

Here's what he came up with:


Credit: Facebook

That's the world alright -- sans a big chunk of Australia and almost the whole of China and Russia and several small countries.

Check out SouthEast Asia:



The Philippines is all aglow -- literally shining! Pinoys are connected on Facebook, alright!

Come on, Facebook! Won't you guys open an office here?! Our location is strategic (we're practically at the heart of this region), we've just elected a new set of leaders, and most importantly (among so many other cool reasons), we're so into Facebook.