Google Fusion Table Review

by Thi Le

Description

Google Fusion Table is used to visualize, combine, host, and share your data table. This is a new application from Google and still in the experimental phase. Fusion Table is integrated with other Google tools, e.g. Google Doc, Forms, Spreadsheet, etc. under Google Drive and data can be imported from those tools or online into Fusion Table.

Access

Google Fusion Table can be accessed under Google Drive. You need to have a Google account to use Fusion Table and other Google applications.

Sample Usage

     Import data

     Create a map

     Create a business card layout

• Create a map
• Turn a table of locations into a map
• Create: a business card layout
• Convert a table of data into a customized display
• Customize and filter
• Create a chart, customize your maps, learn about cards, create filters and summaries of your data 
• Share and publish
• Make you data accessible to others, publish Fusion Tables visualizations 

     Extended Features 

• Create: Collaborative data gathering
• Give everyone their own table to update, while keeping the eagle-eye view on all of it.
• Visualize field data in Google Earth and Fusion Tables
• Use Open Data Kit to collect data on mobile devices and bring it into Fusion Tables.
• Send Google Forms input directly to a Fusion Table
• Create a web form to gather data, then sync it to a Fusion Table for analysis and visualization.
• Use moderated form input to power a live visualization
• Add a moderation step to your Google Form sync
• Make an intensity map with custom boundaries
• Display polygons in different colors according to values in your data. Combine data values and KML polygon boundaries from your own or other data sources.
• Put a chart into your map's info window
• Display a chart for each map marker.
• Use merge to apply map styles by category
• Want a different icon or color for the map? This trick makes it easy to add the style column.
• Embed visualizations in Google Sites
• Work around the javascript restrictions in Google Sites
• Use merge to apply map styles by category
• Want a different icon or color for the map? This trick makes it easy to add the style column.
• Extract a subset of data
• Quickly take just the part you want from a big data set.
• Use Overlays in Google MapMaker
• Host your location data in Google Fusion Tables to help while editing Google MapMaker.
• Tip: Include a Street View image
• Display a street view image of the row's location in the map info window or a card layout.

What the Tool Does Well

As a Google application, Google Fusion Tables tool has the access to vast resources of Google while doing researches. Along with other applications such as Google Forms, Google Docs, etc. Google Fusion Table can be a great visualization tool to present data. 

What it Does Poorly

Because Google Fusion Table is still in experimental phase, so some of the listed features are not avalable to public. Privacy isse is als concerned.

Google Fusion Table exports data in a comma-seperated value format, which can be confusing to some regions where comma is used as decimal point.

Additional Resources

More info