Tired of looking at the same old political world map? Check out these different, fun, and interesting maps! Which one is your favorite?

What’s in an American Name?

Maybe one of the coolest maps I’ve ever come across, this interactive map of the United States displays hundreds of Native American place names from across the country and experts best guesses as to what their English translations are. Find out the likely meanings of city names you have been using your whole life such as Manhattan, which may literally mean “where one gathers wood for bows.” Place names such as Allapattah, Florida, might sound silly to us, but it makes sense when you learn that “allapattah” probably means “alligator.” Scrolling over this map of place names (which magnifies the words for you) is like scrolling over a map that describes the land features and people of each area in the US. Challenge: try to find what city name means “the place where dung is found.”

Online Communities 2

Check out one person’s take on the world of online communities. Each country is an online tool or community, such as email, Facebook, or Twitter, and the size of the country represents the amount of traffic that online community boasts. All the biggest land masses belong to Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Skype. But take a closer look (clicking on the map will bring you to a zoomed in version). You’ll notice landscape features that portray regions within the online communities such as the Britney Mountains on the Youtube community, and the Northern Wasteland of Unread Updates in the Facebook community.

Australia is BIG!

This post card illustrates the enormity that is the continent-country of Australia. It might be hard to compare the continents of Australia and Europe, seeing as they are on opposite hemispheres, but this post card puts the two land masses on top of each other to show that Australia holds its own when compared to the European continent!
 
The Great Firewall of China

This map of China is actually made up of all the keywords and websites that are censored in China. All the words in red are keywords that cannot be researched on the internet in China, and all the websites in gray are either inaccessible or have some pages blocked in China.

The Burger Force

This map shows where the eight largest burger chains in the United States are located. At first glance you may think there isn’t a dominating fast food burger chain, but after looking at the key, you’ll realize that the color that just looks like the background of the map actually represents McDonald’s! The Burger Force map truly helps one understand the nickname “fast food nation.”