The Internet shrunk the world by making us a much more connected global society. Information travels from one side of the globe to the other at break-neck speed and more people are communicating and crossing cultural barriers than ever before. So, how much do you really know about those other countries? IfItWereMyHome.com is a website with a sleek but simple interface that will help you understand those other countries you might hear about in the news, where one of your co-workers was born, or is the setting of a book you’re reading.
The meat of IfItWereMyHome lies in its Country Comparison feature. This allows you to select two countries and compare them on key factors like: money made, oil consumed, unemployment rate, money spent on health care, life expectancy, electricity usage, chance of having HIV/AIDS, birth rate, and chance of dying in infancy. Further down on the page, you can also read a blurb about the country and find books on Amazon about the country.
Another educational section of the site is its focus on recent Disasters. Right now, there is only the July 2010 Pakistan flooding and the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Each disaster has a blurb to provide some background details about it and then shows its impact on a Google Maps embedded widget.
The only caveat to this site is for the privacy inclined: it will ask your browser for your location. Other than that, IfItWereMyHome.com is an informative site that can help convey culture, defeat stereotypes, and provide a greater understanding to the world outside our computer monitors.