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Mind Mapping Software - What are the current top players now?

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Josh:
Alright all, I know this is a topic that routinely comes up here, but i was wondering...what are the current top players in this realm of software now? I am looking for a way to diagram out my thoughts, and create relationships based on them or identify new trends or connections between various topics, for research I partake in as part of my graduate studies.

Any thoughts? :) Thanks again!

Ath:
For the simple mind-mapping tasks I have, I've been using FreeMind, a SourceForge project that is IMHO worth a look.

dr_andus:
what are the current top players in this realm of software now?
-Josh (October 06, 2014, 11:00 PM)
--- End quote ---

It depends what you mean by "top players". If you mean "best selling", there are some really expensive mind mapping software out there with every imaginable feature including Gantt charts, or online ones based on subscription.

But for free software, I use Freeplane (fork of Freemind) for hierarchical mind mapping. As for non-hierarchical concept mapping, I like VUE, but some folks here swear by Scapple. CompendiumNG also looks interesting, but I haven't tried it.

TaoPhoenix:
"...looking for a way to diagram out my thoughts, and create relationships based on them or identify new trends or connections between various topics..."

I think a broad comment is to ponder a little "what do you want the software to do"? I think this is one of those strange topics where you can stare at software all day, but to use a chess analogy, if you get a supercomputer playing chess thinking 40 moves ahead and the first move is wrong, you'll end up with gorgeously proofed out garbage.

Do you want little circles you can write in, and then add circles and circles until you have a nice cluster of circles linking everywhere? Instead, it just so happens the method I went with was a topic-tree list program, and if the same thing shows up twice, just add it into the second tree. Like, if you're studying the effects of fruits on health, orange shows up say twice, on "list of fruits" and "sources of vitamin C." My particular program doesn't draw lines between them there, but at a certain info threshold, it's not so bad to manage.

TaoPhoenix:

It depends what you mean by "top players".
-dr_andus (October 07, 2014, 03:51 AM)
--- End quote ---

I think "Top Player" is a misdirecting red herring. I'd ponder exactly what is desired, and then maybe sometimes a lesser known app has a killer feature. Let's call it the "drool factor". "Blah Blah Blah, all those big guys do x and y, but this little thing does THAT!? Gimme the Pro copy now!!" That's how it went for me.

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