Abstract
The fast evolving information space forms a new arena for geographical analysis which enhances our understanding of the structure of digital spaces, thus potentially affecting the urban lives and socio-economic activities that have become increasingly dependent on information technology. Assuming that the information space forms a quantitatively measurable entity and should be addressed in the geographical context, this study combines spatial analysis techniques with GIS technologies to explore the structure of the World Wide Web in terms of its node connectivity. We investigate the number of homepages and the reciprocal hyperlinks between 180 global Internet domains and determine the location that is central to the information space. The hyperlink structure is treated as a network and a virtual distance between these domains is calculated from which the mini-sum distance of all the sites is determined. The results are overlaid onto an atlas to help to understand the relationship between the information space and the existing geographical space.
