FACEBOOK CONNECTS THE WORLD VIA FRIENDS

A Facebook intern interested in seeing how political borders affect friendships around the globe has created a map of the world by sampling data from the social networks 500 million user base.The map displays friendships as lights on a deep blue background.The eastern half of the US and Europe shine the brightest,while China,Russia and Africa,where Facebook has little presence,are mainly dark.I was interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends, said Paul Butler,an intern at Facebook