Words, Dictionaries and Thesauri

There are several link-entity browsers out there for words. Here are some I've spotted:

• Mark Shepherd has a thesaurus browser
• a taxonomic approach at Roget2000
• the Visuwords Online Graphical Dictionary
  
• an award winning Google widget MapMyWord
• the Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

It is interesting to compare their approaches...

• In terms of delivery, the Flash approach of the thesaurus browser and Visuwords wins hands-down.
• In terms of keeping one's point of reference (history, animation), Roget2000 fails miserably. The hyperbolic layout kind of works, but it isn't particularly legible.
• Visuwords is ugly to the point of distraction, and the layouts hide the words sometimes. Good feedback when dragging though.
• MapMyWord appears to work through image maps, and is responsive until you want to re-centre it.
  
• Thinkmap is Java, uses animated radial layout to good effect, and has a plethora of options. Not that I'd actually want to pay for it though!
  

An honourable mention also has to go to the ObjectGraph Dictionary - great speed and usability through AJAX.