Information management, mindmapping and information visualization tools

Mindmapping started as an educational tool, one of the many forms of information mapping like concept mapping, idea sunbursting, spider diagrams and bubble diagrams.  The name Mind Map and a set of rules were made up by Tony Buzan who registered the name as a trademark in USA and UK. They are related to outlines, but break away from the "straight line down the page" that so many people find unhelpful.

Thanks to Buzan's excellent marketing of the technique, many people know about mindmaps - they were taught about it at school and went on to use a variation of it in their working lives.  And a variation it has to be.  The skill is immensely useful but not when limited to The Rules - http://www.mind-mapping.org/mindmapping-learning-study-memory/rules-of-mindmapping.html - except perhaps rule no. 8, which essentially says "do your own thing".

Colours are useful, but not essential, as a glance at mindmaps used in project management, planning and creative businesses will show.  Single word nodes can be good for learning, but cripple most adult uses of mindmapping, and even the "radiant" principle is ignored by many without killing the map.

Special mind mapping and concept mapping search engines

There is now a Knol on mind mapping

There are two specialized search engines, focusing on mind mapping and concept mapping at http://www.mind-mapping.org/article_main.php.

Use these to do focused Google searches of valued mind-mapping websites and chosen concept-mapping websites. This search box ignores the mindmapping-bandwagon, all-adverts sites, the trivial three-line posts about someone's new mind-map, and pages for old software on software download sites.

So what?
So if you search for, say, "finance", then everything returned will be related to finance and mind mapping (or concept mapping if you choose the other engine).  And because the web sites have been chosen carefully (without fear or favour), you won't see web pages that just happen to include the words "mapping", "finance" and "mind".

New Site
Now, this search engine also has its own domain: http://www.mindmapsearch.org but it's not just the search engine.  There's a list of all the mindmapping authority sites I know, categorized over several pages. 

Tell me about other sites: You can let me know about other sites that should be added to the search engines' sources.  Please email me at vic at mind-mapping dot org