This is an old page, but new to me: Zipdecode is a little applet that highlights all the US zip codes matching the numbers you type in. So if you just type in 9 you get all of California, 94 and you get the Bay Area, etc. This is by Ben Fry, the guy who did those excellent blog linkage visualizations for New York Magazine recently.
Thanks V. Lanard!
i initially missed the point of the visualization when i typed in my apartment’s zipcode superduper fast. a testament to my online impulse-buy tendencies.
but when you watch one digit at a time, it is beautiful.
Telephone numbers desperately need a similar visualization. Some mobile service providers (Sprint for example) tell you the location of the phone number you are calling. They could probably experiment with this approach.