Google Launches Public Data Visualisation Tool

9th March 2010

Almost exactly 3 years ago, in March 2007, Google acquired Gapminder’s Trendalyzer software. They have now put this technology to use and released it in the public domain.

Google Public Data

The Trendalyzer software allows users to access various statistics in an interactive and animated format, which is definitely much more interesting than just having to read dull details from a table. This technology is also used in motion chart gadgets, such as the Google Visualization API and Google Docs.

Google Public Data Charting Minimum Wages In Europe

Google has now launched the Public Data Explorer, which will allow users to analyse statistical data on a wide variety of subjects ranging fromunemployment rates to the fertility rates in various countries. The data is provided by reliable authorities such as the World Bank, EuroStat, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisitics and U.S. Census Bureau.

The tool was generally expected to supplement data already available on Google Maps. While it isn’t currently available directly on Google Maps, it does make it easy and interesting to not only visualise and explore the data on a map or a graph but also to share it by embedding it or posting a direct URL to a particular data set.

The animated charts will be updated automatically so users will always receive the latest data available at the time. Users can also click on the play button to visualise the changes in data over a period of time.

Tags: data analysis, gapminder, google, google maps

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5 Responses to “Google Launches Public Data Visualisation Tool”

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Ossama Hamed : 10 March 2010 at 11:05 pm

I have the pleasure to brief on our Data Visualization software “Trend Compass”.

TC is a new concept in viewing statistics and trends in an animated way by displaying 5 axis (X, Y, Time, Bubble size & Bubble color) instead of just the traditional X and Y axis. It could be used in analysis, research, presentation etc. In the banking sector, we have Deutsche Bank New York as our client.

Link on Chile’s Earthquake (27/02/2010):

http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/EarthQuakeinChile/

This a link on weather data :

http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/aims/

This is a bank link to compare Deposits, Withdrawals and numbers of Customers for different branches over time ( all in 1 Chart) :

http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/bank-trx/

Misc Examples :

http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/airline/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/stockmarket1/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/tax/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/football/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/swinefludaily/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/flu/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/babyboomers/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/bank-trx/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/advertising/

This is a project we did with Princeton University on US unemployment :
http://www.epicsyst.com/main3.swf

A 3 minutes video presentation of above by Professor Alan Krueger Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and currently Chief Economist at the US Treasury using Trend Compass :
http://epicsyst.com/trendcompass/princeton.aspx?home=1

Latest financial links on the Central Bank of Egypt:

http://www.epicsyst.com/trendcompass/samples/Aggregate-balance-sheet/
http://www.epicsyst.com/trendcompass/samples/balance-sheet
http://www.epicsyst.com/trendcompass/samples/banks-deposits-by-maturity/
http://www.epicsyst.com/trendcompass/samples/egyptian-banks/
http://www.epicsyst.com/trendcompass/samples/currency-by-denomination/

I hope you could evaluate it and give me your comments. So many ideas are there.

You can download a trial version. It has a feature to export EXE,PPS,HTML and AVI files. The most impressive is the AVI since you can record Audio/Video for the charts you create.

epicsyst.com/trendcompass/FreeVersion/TrendCompassv1.2_DotNet.zip
Farhad Divecha : 11 March 2010 at 9:51 am

@Ossama Hamed The flu trends shown on your tool are very interesting.

Does the big spike in 2008 correspond to Bird Flu?

It would be esepcially helpful if you could see news clippings for any given data point, and if you could also see data on a map, like Google does it.
AccuraCast : 11 March 2010 at 5:31 pm

Reply received via email:

Thanks.

I don’t know if the big spike in 2008 correspond to Bird Flu, but it sure did jump a lot from 2007.

Currently we are working on having additional text displayed when hovering over a certain object in the Chart. As for maps this will take some more time. Thank you for the suggestions and good ideas.
Keep it coming.

Ossama