Google has launched Google Public Data, a new search feature that promises to make “it easy to find and compare public data.”
The new feature breaks usable public data out of a search result. For example a search for “Unemployment rate in California” delivers a graph with that data as the first search result. Flipping across to the result then allows users to map related data, for example you could compare unemployment data in California, New York and Florida.
In terms of potential, the new feature could turn out to be highly useful, and certainly delivers an easy way to grab relevant data. The only limitation so far is the depth of data; Google has to manually add data to the system, and so far the only data available is data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Population Division.
The natural comparison to Google Public Data is the new Wolfram Alpha search engine that has been getting a lot of buzz (although hasn’t launched yet.) Wolfram Alpha though is fundamentally different, in that it compiles data available on the web automatically, and is far more advanced in its query abilities, vs Google Public Data that realizes only of data already in the system. That aside, Google Public Data is still a sgreat service, that will undoubtedly improve with time.
Here’s the Google Public Data demo video:
