Visual Data

Google has been trying out new ways to represent data. For some reason people seem to think that looking at tables of numbers and words is boring. Up until now people have used the help of pie charts and bar graphs to visual data. This has helped, but after a few graphs and charts it is still snoozeville for most. So as one of Google's pet projects it is working out how data can be translated to data people care about. Here is an example of one of Google's visual data projects. They have a 3-D Globe, like Google Earth, and they display the different languages that Google around the world. Global Search Graph

Now one can easily assess that the graph maps out the civilized world and where people are connected to the internet. However, the one thing I pulled away from my high school statistics class is that data can be manipulated. Some things to consider would be the popularity of Google in each area. Sure the big cities maybe able to get Google, but some cultures Google might not be as good. Heck even here in the states we have a lot of people using other search engines. Who knows, podunk Russia may prefer Yahoo over Google. Another thing to consider is that in developing countries, may people assess the internet using smart phones. This is because it is easier and more cost effective to install cell towers periodically rather than running cables to every remote town in China. Smart phones might not always use Google as their default search engine. Another consideration is language. Google supports over 130 languages, but there is about 165 living languages of the world. So in order to use Google, you must speak or understand one of their languages, such the odd languages are not used as often but that big dark spot in Africa could be explained by the lack of support for the tribal language (from a mobile device of course).

The point is, Google's attempt to visualize data is a noble one. Translating spreadsheets into visual masterpieces is no easy task. I just thought I would give a warning that what you see is just one interoperation of that data.