Image of the City: Google, Flickr, and Wikipedia Appear To Be in Consensus
[Image: San Francisco at night, from the list of top 10 cities for design in America. Courtesy of Business Week.]
Business Week has released their list of Top 10 Cities for Design in America, and I’m sure everyone has seen it here. However, considering a visual standard of measure, I began thinking about the image of these cities and how one might make their first impression via the web. Increasingly, today’s youth appear to be getting their information, entertainment, and understanding from the web. Wikipedia anyone?
Perhaps my awareness to this was heightened last night on the subway ride home. I heard a guy telling his buddy that his 7 year old son is already using YouTube to search for Super Mario videos. The punch line to the guy’s story was that he walked into the computer room amid a series of F-bombs, with the kid absolutely clueless to the language. Well, that was until his father had to explain his angry reaction to a Super Mario video.
Now, imagine this kid has never visited one of these cities. He will likely use the internet considering the number of kids I have heard at the grocery store reply, “Just Google it.” Seeing as first impressions are now being made through web resources, I wanted to do a little experiment to answer the following question.
Using a few of the most popular information sources on the web, what is the first “image” of each city in the Top 10.
As part of their story, Business Week provides their own image for each city depicting its character from the author and/or editor’s point of view. Compared against this image, I have taken images from Wikipedia, Google Image Search, and Flickr. The “image” of each city is presented below in ascending order according to Business Week’s top 10.
Washington, DC
Philadelphia
Denver
Seattle
San Francisco
Portland
Los Angeles
Boston
New York
Chicago
These images very quickly illustrate the role that architecture plays in our image of cities. This is especially true of American cities due to the proliferation of skyscrapers in the 20th century that began to define skylines. Washington D.C. and San Francisco are the only cities in this study not to be explicitly defined by their skylines. Instead, they are defined by monuments or icons strongly associated with each. For D.C. it is the White House and the Washington Monument, for San Francisco it is the Golden Gate Bridge and the trolley.
Most surprising to me in this study is the lack of difference between each source. Granted the photos are all different in terms of coloring, night-time vs. day-time, and subject matter, but they are almost all from the same vantage point. I surely expected to have more eye level or personal photos from flickr. I guess, however, that when people associate pictures with cities - in terms of tagging - it relates more to their trips and vacations. Thus, these pictures capture the essence of that city which would be the skyline or a monument.
The only image that is truly different is the image provided by Business Week for Portland. This depicts a man on a roof with solar units. This suggests the prominent role of sustainable practice within this city relative to the others. Another point you should note about Portland is the result of the flickr search. The image you see from flickr is actually the 5th image of the search result. This is because images from Portland in England and Maine appear before Oregon. Therefore, someone searching for Portland would also be taking clues about the status of the city relative to it’s rank.
Rank also brings up a very important point here. These images are first in Google and flickr based on the algorithms of these two websites. Both are theoretically providing the most relevant images. Compared to Business Week and Wikipedia, whose images are subjectively chosen, the results of Google and flickr are relatively objective.
Yet, in the end, all images are similar enough to suggest a form of consensus. Those of us that live in these cities likely have a much different image. I’m guessing it’s more related to the street life, especially if one grew up in the city. I can still imagine someone’s image of their current hometown as the one the first time they arrived via plane or car. In that case, it would be an aerial or skyline of the architecture of the 20th century.
If your “image” is much different than those above, please leave a link in the comments to one that you find more appropriate.
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Comments
Thanks Keith, I suppose I should have given my own of New York City…
My image is framed by the first time I felt like a true New Yorker, almost 2 years after living here. Recently I began running in Central Park around the reservoir since I live just north of the park now.
On a visual level…
From this vantage point you are immersed in a “natural” setting with a version of the skyline as a backdrop. The buildings appear to rise from the treeline increasing your awareness of the natural elements in the park. Furthermore, the gravel track around the reservoir is elevated, so there is a heightened sense of emergence when you reach the track. It is this image that represents the complexity and beauty of New York City to me.
On a psychological level…
Once you join the stream of runners in Central Park, it’s as if you have joined one of the daily rituals of the city. The other runners also serve as motivation to run harder and longer, whether it’s by passing slower people to boost your ego or seeing some old guy kick your ass to keep you going. Therefore, it is this anonymous relationship with those around you that heighten the feeling of living in New York City.
FYI, those are pictures of the US Capitol in the DC photos (with the exception of one of the Washington Monument pics, which does have a tiny White House in it).
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My image of San Francisco is from the Bay Bridge with the Financial District in the foreground and an expanse of the bay leading to the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. This view is particularly beautiful on many mornings when the sky is clear and the sun glistens off the windows of the towers in FiDi and they reflect onto the bay, particularly if it is calm. This is much more relevant and top of mind than the view of the City and skyline through the Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands — a view that is typically only seen by tourists.