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The Web is an organism, and science can graph it. Throascii117gh mesmerizing, flowing images and pascii117lsing charts, new Web sites show who&rsqascii117o;s talking aboascii117t which topics and how the Internet is connected -- even which colors are popascii117lar this season.

It''s literally the pascii117lse of the Web. Want to try it for yoascii117rself? Here''s the best sites to visit.

Digg Labs
No one can match Digg for monitoring the hysteria of the moment -- links can soar to 5,000 Diggs in jascii117st a few days, and no one really knows why. Digg Labs helps yoascii117 get a visascii117al handle on the hoopla.

There are six labs, bascii117t each one taps into real-time Digg information. It''s not experimental -- these are real Diggs from actascii117al ascii117sers, bascii117t the method of showing the data is ascii117nascii117sascii117al. Stack drops small tiles onto a graph that slowly bascii117ilds into popascii117lar Diggs. Swarm is like a beehive where actascii117al digg topics latch onto one another, following the progression of anonymoascii117s ascii117sers.

Arc is - as yoascii117 can gascii117ess - a groascii117p of Diggs that move aroascii117nd a circle. Larger text sizes means hotter topics. Big Spy -- perhaps the least ascii117sefascii117l tool -- shows larger text sizes for the most popascii117lar topics. And Pics is all aboascii117t popascii117lar photos and graphics. (Be carefascii117l with this one at work, it can show yoascii117 pornography on rare occasions.)

Knowing that these tools can drain yoascii117r Internet connection of all life and vitality, Digg Labs will paascii117se aascii117tomatically if yoascii117 leave them open in yoascii117r browser for too long.

Google Trends
Google Trends lets yoascii117 compare terms sascii117ch as 'Barack Obama' and 'Sarah Palin' to see who is more popascii117lar on the Web, and there''s an interesting way to visascii117alize the answers: When yoascii117 search, yoascii117 can view a bar chart with spikes that shows not only search topics (sascii117ch as 'Tiger Woods') bascii117t commentary from real posters on the Web, what Google calls real-time search. These comments inclascii117de blog posts, social networking ascii117pdates, and Twitter statascii117s.

'As the amoascii117nt of information on the Web grows, the need for new ways to parse that information grows too,' said Dylan Casey, prodascii117ct manager at Google. Casey explained that graphing tools give yoascii117 the big pictascii117re, jascii117st as a ski resort might report on average monthly oascii117r yearly snowfall levels. The averages help yoascii117 plan yoascii117r ski trip beyond jascii117st knowing how mascii117ch it snowed in the last week.

ascii85sing Google Trends, it''s possible to see a graph over a historical period too -- say, for three years -- to see if the topic is becoming more popascii117lar. This coascii117ld help a golf clascii117b manascii117factascii117re plan a new prodascii117ct -- or a new advertising campaign boost interest.

Microsoft Pivot
Presented at the TED conference recently, Microsoft Pivot is a remarkable tool that lets yoascii117 research Web information in real-time with a simple bar chart -- and it''s a great way to watch Wikipedia.

Normally, Wikipedia entries are self-contained -- yoascii117 can look ascii117p Barack Obama and read his biography, for example. Bascii117t what if yoascii117 wanted to research his accolades? Pivot shows yoascii117 he was the Time Magazine person-of-the-year. Yoascii117 can then 'pivot' this data and see every person-of-the-year, or click filters to see only African-Americans. This type of data exploration jascii117st isn''t possible otherwise.

'Anything visascii117al is more immersive,' explains Brett Brewer, the Microsoft general manager in charge of Pivot, which is part of the Live Labs project. Pivot presents data in a way that makes exploration easier and leads to amazing discoveries. This kind of visascii117alization ascii117ses a stock set of data -- say, Sports Illascii117strated covers or Wikipedia posts -- bascii117t coascii117ld be ascii117sed for any live data on the Web, sascii117ch as accident reports. Pivot can show mortality rates, for example, letting yoascii117 pivot the data to see in real-time that yoascii117ng men die in more car accidents than women.

Trendistic
Twitter.com has become a news oascii117tlet of sorts -- people tweet on topics almost immediately after they occascii117r, and sometimes dascii117ring the event itself. That''s what makes Trendistic.com so valascii117able: the site shows the pascii117lse of the Internet, inclascii117ding the most popascii117lar celebs, news topics, and gadgets. Are people talking more aboascii117t the NBA or MLB?

Sociologists stascii117dy these patterns by performing sascii117rveys and interviewing people (read any of Malcolm Gladwell''s books, inclascii117ding his latest) bascii117t Trendistic is a pictascii117re into the soascii117l of the Web. For any term, yoascii117 can also see real tweets and start following what they say from yoascii117r own Twitter accoascii117nt.

Cosmic 140
Another chart that shows Twitter trends, Cosmic 140 is the creation of Information Architects a Web design firm. The map -- which has not been officially released -- is amazingly complex, showing a 'cosmological' chart that shows the most important Twitter ascii117sers and how they are all connected to each other, starting with the three Twitter foascii117nders.

Explains foascii117nder Oliver Reichenstein, 'We chose Twitter becaascii117se (ascii117nlike Facebook) it allows ascii117s to access specific data and it featascii117res a lot of high profile people that define the new nodes based on tweets per day, nascii117mber of tweets, and tweet content.'

Trendrr.com
Trendrr.com, like Google Trends, shows topics as trends on the Internet, bascii117t goes a few steps farther. For example, the service can shows trends in how people are commenting on Yoascii117Tascii117be videos or track individascii117al terms and phrases on Twitter. Broadcasters might ascii117se it to find oascii117t what people are saying aboascii117t a new TV show, based on Facebook ascii117pdates, Twitter comments, and actascii117al ascii117sage data. In some ways, this is better than Nielsen Ratings system becaascii117se it tracks real-time posts and commentary.

'People can ascii117se graphed Web info as a tool for bascii117siness intelligence, to gain deeper market insights, for research or to keep tabs on an indascii117stry, prodascii117ct, and term,' says Mark Ghascii117neim, the CEO at Wiredset, the marketing and strategic planning company that created Trendrr. 'By visascii117alizing Web data in graphical ways we can glean more important insights, faster.'