Google Debuts New Tool for Searching Public Data: Search Giant Partners with Statistics Gatherers to Present an Array of Data in Visual Form within Google Labs
Google Public Data Explorer (www.google.com/publicdata/home), a new tool from the search giant that went live this week, takes public data regarding schools, population, crime, and even names to construct charts and graphs that help illustrate trends. Google is also releasing a list of the top search terms that can be answered with public data, based on the analysis of anonymized search data. School comparisons and unemployment topped the list of the most frequent queries, followed by population, sales tax, and salaries, CNET reports.
The list gives searches an idea of the data available to them that can also be manipulated into moving charts and graphs over a time period. In addition to former partners the World Bank, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau, Google has added the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, the California Department of Education, Eurostat, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to its list of data providers, CNET News.com reports on a network blog in an article by writer Tom Krazit.
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