• Home
  • News
  • Fortune 500
  • Tech
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechPointCloud

Google Has a New Easy Way to Paint Pictures of Data

Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
Barb Darrow
By
Barb Darrow
Barb Darrow
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 26, 2017, 9:12 AM ET

Journalists and other professionals who need to display data in an understandable way now have a new tool to do so.

Google on Thursday unveiled Data GIF Maker, an online tool designed to make it easier to display relative interest between two topics based on data gleaned from Google’s own Internet search trends or other data sources.

As explained in a blog post by Simon Rogers, a data editor at Google News Lab, reporters can build data GIFs—short graphical clips from animations and videos—based on Google Search Trends or other data sources.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

GIFs, which stands for Graphics Interchange Format, often pop up as the cat video clips that have invaded your Facebook (FB) and Twitter (TWTR) feeds. But they can be much more informational if used to illustrate simple data comparisons.

Related: Copyright Law Behind a $600 Million Startup and Millennials’ Favorite Form of Expression

To demonstrate relative search interest between two topics, reporters can use the Google Trends explore tool to get a figure representing average search interest over time in each topic. The users can then enter those numbers into the GIF maker, add some explanatory text for the each number, and hit a button to generate an exportable GIF that can be embedded in their stories.

In his blog, Rogers used a “Peanut Butter” versus “Jelly” comparison to illustrate the tool. Having a sweet tooth, we used “Vanilla” versus “Chocolate” and got this:

Google
Google

The tool easy to use and suits simple comparisons between just two terms. However, it does take some time to generate a high-resolution GIF. It’s likely Google will add the ability to compare more than two things going forward.

Related: Giphy Has Almost No Revenue and Is Worth $600 Million

Google (GOOG) is not alone in automating data-to-visual transformations. As VentureBeat pointed out, Infogram, now owned by Prezi, offers an editor to convert user data into publishable infographics.

About the Author
Barb Darrow
By Barb Darrow
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map

© 2025 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.