Icons of the Web: Top 1,000,000 websites in one gigantic 37,440 x 37,440 image.

Ever dreamed of looking at a relatively organized image showcasing the top 1,000,000 websites using nothing more than their favicons? You’re in luck. The dirty work was done by nmap earlier this year (2010 for those of you who’ve forgotten…). Specifically, they used Alexa ratings to hone in on the top 1,000,000 sites and then ran two separate search queries for icons of any sort to give said websites a face. Per nmap’s words:

A large-scale scan of the top million web sites (per Alexa traffic data) was performed in early 2010 using the Nmap Security Scanner and its scripting engine.

We retrieved each site’s icon by first parsing the HTML for a link tag and then falling back to /favicon.ico if that failed. 328,427 unique icons were collected, of which 288,945 were proper images. The remaining 39,482 were error strings and other non-image files. Our original goal was just to improve our http-favicon.nse script, but we had enough fun browsing so many icons that we used them to create the visualization below.

The area of each icon is proportional to the sum of the reach of all sites using that icon. When both a bare domain name and its “www.” counterpart used the same icon, only one of them was counted. The smallest icons–those corresponding to sites with approximately 0.0001% reach–are scaled to 16×16 pixels. The largest icon (Google) is 11,936 x 11,936 pixels, and the whole diagram is 37,440 x 37,440

Google walks away with the top spot, holding an icon that is 11,936 x 11,936 pixels on it’s own. The entire image if expanded would equal 37,440 x 37,440. Any browser and pretty much any machine short of a supercomputer would vomit up ever organ…err…piece of silicon inside their aluminum and plastic bodies. So smaller, pannable/zoomable images ftw!

With that said, head on over to nmap’s site to tinker around with a slightly smaller, but pannable version of the image above, complete with search box (to make it easier) and all.

Site owners: where do you stand?

**For the record, Gadgetsteria’s icon is 32 x 32 — we’re not in last place. Wo0t!!!

Update: LevelUp Studios releases “Beautiful Live Wallpaper” for Android phones.

As I was sifting through the growing pile of apps that is becoming the Android Market, I stumbled upon one exciting newcomer. For those of you familiar with Beautiful Widgets (the original HTC Sense widget look-alike), you’re going to love Beautiful Live Wallpaper. Building off the newer, redesigned widgets, Beautiful Live Widgets brings all the slick looking weather goodness directly to your home screen by way of live wallpapers.

If iPad can, iPhone can too: Landscape springboard officially coming to iPhone 4.0?

iPhone users/hopefuls: Think of a few of the “must have” features you’d like to see in iPhone OS 4.0 when it is finally given the final seal of approval and shipped out. Is it the multitasking? Perhaps more RAM? Let’s not forget the more rugged physical appearance. Or could it be something as simple as a landscape springboard?

Themes coming to BlackBerry App World Novermber 9th?

App World may be higher priced and not have as many apps as other mobile app stores, but one key feature that can truly set them apart from other app stores currently open. Themes. That’s right. Many CrackBerry users find themes a great way to keep their device always feeling fresh and “like new”. Besides, who wants to stare at the same layout, wallpaper, and icons all the time? I surely don’t. While iPhone users have a snowball’s chance in hell from getting official Apple sponsored themes (Cydia we love thee), and Android Marketplace still ignoring the whole theming scene, RIM can actually be first with something pretty big in the mobile app market. I’m really excited to see how they execute this grand plan as BlakcBerry themes are quite a lucrative business. Since this is a rumor, that Novermber 9th date could very well slip. Though sources of BlackBerry Cool say it’s at the very least a firm target they’re gunning for. While themes should have been included in App World from the beginning, it’s comforting to see RIM really trying everything to grasp this whole consumer market thing.

BlackBerry Cool