I thought this infographic had some interesting information within it.

I have very mixed feelings about bubble graphs. They share some of the same problems as do pie charts. Particularly in this situation where the graphic has so much height, it is quite difficult to do something like pick out the most successful site or compare two sites. The infographic also suffers from a labeling problem.

I assume the years are the year that the site first started, but I think the data inside the bubbles are the number of hits (although it may be users). The hits (or users) probably did not come in the initial year. As a result the graphic can not be used to see when the “Boom” from a usage perspective occurred. If my insight is supposed to be how many new starts there are, the scattered placement of the bubbles makes counting harder than it needs to be.

An infographic does not need to be everything to everyone. This image may have served it’s purpose. When I say it, I was attracted to it, but after exploring it, I was disappointed by how little data is actually in it.

I’m interested in your thoughts.

[via Focus]

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