Twitter has been tracking where its tweets originate since the network launched and now the company is sharing location-based information dating back to 2009.
To showcase the reach of location-based (geo-located) tweets the micro-blogging network has placed those 140 character messages on various country and city maps.
According to Miguel Rios, Twitter’s Visual Insights Manager every single dot on the maps is a tweet, and the colors represent tweet volume. With billions of tweets the visual representation is pretty amazing.
IO9 was quick to point out that the coastlines and transportation conduits along ocean areas are especially dense with tweets while low density and inaccessible areas that are “off the grid” showcase far less tweets.
Since the maps are made only with Twitter approved geo-located tweets the maps are not complete but they still offer great insight.
You can check out more Twitter location based tweet information via the Twitter Flickr site.