Get Your News In a Big Rectangular Flash App

My visual acuity is limited to "Lookit pretty colors" but representing Google News stories as a Flash app full of rectangles which vary in color according to topic and age is rather fascinating. So if you've got a Flash-enabled browser and a little time, fire up Newsmap ( http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm ).

Not exactly text-only, is it? The "bands" of news vary in color according to the category of news, in color darkness according to the age of the story, and in size -- I'm not exactly sure but I think it has to do with the number of related stories. (Couldn't find that information on the site.) If you hold your mouse over the story, a box will pop up with the story's headline, a sentence, and the number of articles related to that one.

When I opened the site, I saw US news. You can change that to one of Google's other country-specific news sites by selecting one of the tabs at the top of the screen. To change categories (sports, technology, business, etc.) use the controls at the bottom right of the screen. And finally, the default Newsmap display is live. But you can change it to cached versions made within the last week using controls on the bottom left. I'm not sure I'd read my news like this every day, but it's an interesting top-down view.

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