As you’ve probably heard, Digg Labs launched last week. If you haven’t, see the Digg blog. I was very impressed by Digg labs, not so much because they are particularly useful, but because they are interesting to watch. They were designed by a company called Stamen Design, and I decided to have a look at what else Stamen has been doing. It seems they specialise in visualising data in interesting ways, and some of the stuff they have done is really interesting.

A particular favourite is called ‘Cabspotting’. From the site:

Cabspotting traces San Francisco’s taxi cabs as they travel throughout the Bay Area. The patterns traced by each cab create a living and always-changing map of city life. This map hints at economic, social, and cultural trends that are otherwise invisible. The Exploratorium has invited artists and researchers to use this information to reveal these “Invisible Dynamics.”

Each cab draws a trail, and that can be used to see all sorts of interesting data in a new way. It also happens to look extremely cool! I particularly like the timelapse videos, which show cab activity at a particular time of day. The colour of the path of the cab can also indicate things, such as its velocity.

All in all, a really interesting project, and I’m sure I could kill hours on the site!