Google Databoard A new way to explore industry research

Posted by Adam Grunewald, Mobile Marketing Manager

It’s important for people to stay up to date about the most recent research and insights related to their work or personal lives. But it can be difficult to keep up with all the new studies and updated data that’s out there. To make life a bit easier, we’re introducing a new take on how research can be presented. The Databoard for Research Insights enables people to explore and interact with some of Google’s recent research in a unique and immersive way. The Databoard uses responsive design to to offer an engaging experience across devices. Additionally, the tool is a new venture into data visualization and shareability with bite-sized charts and stats that can be shared with your friends or coworkers. The Databoard is currently home to several of Google’s market research studies for businesses, but we believe that this way of conveying data can work across all forms of research.

Here are some of the things that make the Databoard different from other ways research is released today:

Easy to use
All of the information in the Databoard is presented in a bite-sized way so that you can quickly find relevant information. You can explore an entire study or jump straight to the topics or data points you care about. The Databoard is also optimized for all devices so you can explore the research on your computer, tablet or smartphone.

Meant to be shared
Most people, when they find a compelling piece of data, want to share it! Whether it’s with a colleague, client, or a community on a blog or social network, compelling insights and data are meant to be shared. With the databoard, you can easily share individual charts and insights or collections of data with anyone through email or social networks, just look for the share button at the top of each chart or insight.

Create a cohesive story
Most research studies set out to answer a specific question, like how people use their smartphones in stores, or how a specific type of consumer shops. This means that businesses need to look across multiple pieces of research to craft a comprehensive business or marketing strategy. With this in mind, the Databoard lets you curate a customized infographic out of the charts or data points you find important across multiple Google research studies. Creating an infographic is quick and easy, and you can share the finished product with your friends or colleagues.

The databoard is currently home to six research studies including The New Multi-screen World, Mobile In-store shopper research and Mobile search moments. New studies will be added frequently. To get started creating your own infographic, visit the Databoard now.

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Explore more with Mapping with Google

Posted by Tina Ornduff, Program Manager

In September 2012 we launched Course Builder, an open source learning platform for educators or anyone with something to teach, to create online courses. This was our experimental first step in the world of online education, and since then the features of Course Builder have continued to evolve. Mapping with Google, our latest MOOC, showcases new features of the platform.

From your own backyard all the way to Mount Everest, Google Maps and Google Earth are here to help you explore the world. You can learn to harness the world’s most comprehensive and accurate mapping tools by registering for Mapping with Google.

Mapping with Google is a self-paced, online course developed to help you better navigate the world around you by improving your use of the new Google Maps, Maps Engine Lite, and Google Earth. All registrants will receive an invitation to preview the new Google Maps.

Through a combination of video and text lessons, activities, and projects, you’ll learn to do much more than look up directions or find your house from outer space. Tell a story of your favorite locations with rich 3D imagery, or plot sights to see on your upcoming trip and share with your travel buddies. During the course, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from Google experts and collaborate with a worldwide community of participants, via Google+ Hangouts and a course forum.

Mapping with Google will be offered from June 10 - June 24, and you can choose whether to explore the features of Google Maps, Google Earth, or both. In addition, you’ll have the option to complete a project, applying the skills you’ve learned to earn a certificate. Visit g.co/mappingcourse to learn more and register today.

The world is a big place; we like to think that you can make it a bit more manageable and adventurous with Google’s mapping tools.

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Explore the history of Pop and Punk Jazz and Folk with the Music Timeline

Posted by Alison Cichowlas and Tony Lam, Google Research

With newspapers, blogs, and websites wrapping up their Top Ten album lists for 2013, we thought wed take a look at some favorite music a bit further in the past as well.

Today, we’re releasing a visualization to show which music has stood the test of time, and how genres and artists have risen and fallen in popularity. The Music Timeline uses aggregated data from Google Play Music to show the changes in music genres over the decades.

This visualization shows which albums from past eras are still in our music libraries today.

Dig deeper into the chart to highlight key artists in each genre and read their stories, and navigate to Google Play to hear their music. For example, by clicking on the Metal stripe, we can see the handoff from Classic Metal to Hair Metal to Alt Metal within the growth of the overall genre, as well as some of the most popular artists that composed each subgenre.

The overall shape of each major genre shows when it hit the scene and when it retreated -- for example, R&B has a long history of resurgences, but Electronica is a strictly recent phenomenon.

Delve into changes in the vocabulary used to name artists and their work -- funk may be over as a genre, but as a band or album name it seems to be timeless.

Or search for a particular artist to see the trajectory of their career -- contrast U2’s long-running reinvention and re-emergence from the ‘80s up to today, versus a one hit wonder like Los del Río’s 1995 Macarena.

For more explorations of how information visualization can make complex data accessible, useful, and even fun, check out the Big Picture project page at research.google.com/bigpicture. We expect this is the first of many collaborations with the Music Recommendations and Discovery team.

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