Now you can immortalise your internet history as a physical object
The internet is often seen as being the binary opposite of print media, with publications and slow journalistic tactics offered as an antidote to the speed and disposability of online delivery.

But HTTPrint, a new data visualisation project from ECAL design graduate Emilie Pillet and programmer Thierry Treyer, looks to marry web browsing with physical print by turning something you might be rather protective of – your browsing history – into a print-on-demand newspaper.

HTTPrint takes the form of a Chrome extension that follows and records your web navigation and browsing history. It collects content and metadata from each page you visit, including the URL, the time you spent on it and the text and images it contains.

Using time as the primary constraint, the script then turns the data into a visualisation that can be printed either at home or as a print-on-demand newspaper. Elements are scaled according to how long a page was viewed and time of day, and layout and effects are added to reflect the data.

Elsewhere in the field of making data beautiful we’ve looked at the Globe of Economic Complexity, a tool that visualises all of global trade. Our survey also shows that audiences are becoming more info-savvy, with 70% willing to share their data if they get something in exchange.