To me, it feels like 2009 was a banner year for infographics. Those sometimes-beautiful, always-intricate images that help us understand big or complex topics used to be the strict purview of news channels and textbooks. Now they’re everywhere. What’s to blame? Freer access to source data, simpler creation tools and bigger monitors? I’m not really sure, but I’ve never seen an infographic that I didn’t like.
Here are four that I’ve recently encountered:
- Who’s doing what in the blogosphere? There are no sources cited for this one, so I’m pretty skeptical, but it’s nice-looking.
- What are people buying online? Uh, where’s the porn?
- Google facts and figures
- Facebook facts
Huh. All of those were about the web. For designers and site publishers alike, there’s a deep vein here for link bait around industry-specific infographics.
UPDATE: Hang on, here’s another one, about video games.
UPDATE #2: And here’s one about World of Warcraft. The way this is going, the next one should be about the bathing habits of undead mages.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Check this infographic for the world of porn (not just purchases) EDUCATIONAL only. Rated G.
Looks like the purchasing graphic is only for physical goods of some kind, and porn would be in the “videos” part of that. Doesn’t seem to include anything virtual, like online subscriptions, ebooks and audiobooks, WoW gold/Second Life money, web hosting, etc. Or, presumably, online porn.
I don’t know what “non-merchandise receipts” is supposed to mean, though. That could be virtual stuff.
Where’s the porn? Just as the graphic (pun) suggests: “drugs and health aids”