Google’s latest service offers users the ability to search for verified stats, and short facts, across a range of subjects.
Yesterday, Google quietly launched its new "Internet Stats" service, which offers users the opportunity to search for facts and statistics from a range of industries and areas, including Macro Economic trends, Technology, and Consumer and Media Trends. The information is presented as short snippets, complete with sources and dates. At the time of launching, it offers data from a fairly impressive list of respected organisations, such as The Financial Times, Hitwise, and Reuters.
Currently, its database of facts doesn’t appear to be comprehensive, but it will undoubtedly grow over time; It seems reasonable to assume that its current big name contributors will continue to provide information and it’s also possible for anyone to submit their own "killer facts", as the submission form calls them. Thankfully, Google has confirmed that submitted stats will be verified by their market research teams before being included, which should prevent this service from descending into yet another source of Internet misinformation.
Initially, the service is only available from Google’s UK domain and many (though by no means all) of its facts relate to the UK. However, it seems reasonable to assume that it will be rolled out globally at some point, unless it proves to be a complete flop.
The early feedback about it seems mixed; the concept has been welcomed by some commentators, whilst others seem distinctly dubious as to its overall usefulness. It’s clear that this isn’t an entirely polished project yet: not all the quotes provide links to their sources and there have been reports that even where links are included, they are sometimes broken. Questions have also been raised about the tool’s search feature, although my personal feeling on this is that it’s not returning any results for some search terms because it simply doesn’t have any factoids containing the term yet.
Overall, it appears that this could be an incredibly powerful tool for those who are searching for specific statistical information, but ultimately its usefulness will depend on the depth and breadth of knowledge that Google includes in it, and how rigorous they are when it comes to verifying submitted stats.
Tags: Google