Visualizing Your Data at Google I/O

APR 15, 2008

By Nir Bar-Lev, Product Manager

This post is one in a series that previews Google I/O, our biggest developer event in San Francisco, May 28-29. Over the next two months, we'll be highlighting sessions and speakers to give Google Code blog readers a better sense of what's in store for you at the event. - Ed.

We recently launched the Google Visualization API, which lets you access multiple sources of structured data that you can display with a large number of different visualizations. The API also provides a platform that can be used to create, share, and reuse visualizations.

For structured data, a big part in making information useful is enabling the visualization and analysis of the data in various ways and manners so we can gather insights from it. From the novice user to the highly trained professional, a chart often provides more insight, faster than any table of data does. Yet the process for matching data to a visualization is still laden with barriers. Integration with specific visualizations is very often an arduous process and finding the right provider of the visual package you need is hard.

The Google Visualization API aims to solve many of these problems. The API is simple to use, making integration quick and painless. Its openness makes it appealing because once a visual component is written it can be used on any supported data source. That means both the visual developer and the data source owner benefit.

By involving the wider developer community we can create a huge inventory of visual applications that fit every need. Just a few weeks after launch, developers have already created interesting visualizations like the piles of money gadget, organizational chart and motion chart.

At Google I/O, our senior engineers will teach you how to quickly and easily write an application using the Google Visualization API. We will work together to build a simple gadget and we will go over the the fine issues and potential pitfalls so you can save yourself even more time when you start writing your own applications over the API.

We also highly recommend you attend the "Advanced Gadget and UI Development Using Google AJAX APIs" session. With the combination of the two, you will have the toolset to making world-class visual applications and gadgets.

We look forward to seeing you at Google I/O in May. In the meantime, come visit us and join the budding, yet growing community using the API.