Recently, I observed some people who were giving their opinions of Twitter vs. Facebook, online. If you are a Facebook user who has tried out Twitter like me, and you miss seeing images like you have on Facebook, there is an application now that will give you a more user-friendly alternative experience, turning live Twitter data into a 3-D visualization. Instead of featuring Twitter posts in a grid-like layout like some applications, with each user’s picture displayed next to text, “TwittEarth” has devised a clever way of visualizing Twitter posts in real time, from people around the world. The application consists of a webpage, located at: http://twittearth.com, where there is a large satellite image of the Earth and every few seconds, it spins, collecting Twitter user geodata from around the the world, (via the Twitter database). It then stops temporarily at a certain spot on the globe, and generates a goofy-looking creature icon that pops up on top of that part of the world/planet, with a talk bubble showing someone’s latest communication. As you observe, more creature icons continue to pop up, with more people’s posts, until you have a collection of them randomly spread across the globe’s surface. Just watching all this twitter talk coming out of the creature icons is an experience in itself. You can even log into your own Twitter account while you are there, and watch as your post pops up, represented by one of the“creature-cons.” The uniqueness of TwittEarth is that although it is just another way of compiling and representing data, this one gives the user a fun visual experience rather than a bland one. TwittEarth however, only allows you to observe random user tweets; (i.e., you still need to use Twitter itself, to post and send your own tweets - or twitts as they are called on this site). It is more like tapping into a fun little sideshow to get a glimpse of what others are talking about around the globe.

TwittEarth however, is a great visual of how interconnected our global Internet community has become: anybody’s thoughts are now available as a syndication in real time, from around the globe,(literally!). Viewing the TwittEarth animation is also a great way to have a good laugh, including just seeing all the creature-cons and posts.

TwittEarth even has its own Twitter page, where you can subscribe to updates, via your Twitter account. It was created by two programmers, Thomas and Christophe of Digitas design, in Neuilly sur Seine, France.

Below are some “Twitt-shots.”