Daily Bits

Google Intros Public Data Explorer Tool in Labs

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Not so long ago, Google started experimenting on public data search feature that lets users find useful statistics while searching for information. This has been expanded later on to include World Bank statistics including population and demographics data on a global scale. Now, Google is expanding this service by launching the Google Public Data Explorer.

Google Public Data Explorer is an experimental visualization tool that is being released under Google Labs. It lets you easily explore, visualize and communicate large datasets through animated charts and maps. What’s good about the Public Data Explorer is the fact that it makes all these happen easily and without requiring data expertise to view meaningful and rich statistical data sets. And the datasets updates automatically through time.

Once you’ve mashed-up enough datasets, the Google Public Data Explorer makes it easy for you to share them by embedding it on your website or blog.

Now here’s the exciting part. Once you’ve embedded a statistical graph on your website or blog, your users can click on a play button and watch the graphs changes in real-time.

Google Public Data Explorer currently culls data sets from various sources such as the World Bank, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, OECD, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, California Department of Education, Eurostat and more.

Google Public Data Explorer is a pretty useful tool if you’re working in development projects or research. It’s your alternative to the costly proprietary statistical databases being offered by commercial vendors.

You may want to check out the Google Public Data Explorer and see if you can make use of it.

Delicious is Alive, Goes to Chrome as an Extension

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Delicious, the social bookmarking site  has been pretty quiet for the past couple of months.  While the site is still alive and kicking nothing much has been heard from it for a long time now. No news, no updates and no new features, until now. And guess what’s keeping the Delicious folks busy? A Delicious Extension that sits right on your Google Chrome’s toolbar.

Yes folks, you read it right, Delicious a Yahoo property just got a new iteration as a Chrome extension.  Don’t get me wrong here, there’s nothing utterly incorrect about this. It’s just don’t I don’ t really expect Delicious to make its presence felt anew by way of Google Chrome extension.

Anyway, what does this early beta of  Delicious Chrome Extension has to offer? Pretty much actually. It lets you sync your Delicious bookmarks, get all your bookmarks right on the Chrome Omnibar,  bookmark a current page in just a click of the Delicious button and search your bookmarks right on the current Chrome tab you are viewing.

The Delicious Chrome Extension works pretty much the same way as other Chrome Extensions. But to guide you in using it properly, the Delicious team has prepared this guided tour.

And to install the Delicious Chrome Extension, just click this link. After installing you just need to register your Delicious account and you’re all set to go.

Would-Be Buyers of E-Book Readers Want to Get the iPad

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Hot on the heels of the just announced pre-order and availability dates of the Apple iPad, here comes an interesting report from a survey conducted by  ChangeWave Research. According to the report – 40% of would be e-reader buyers would like to get the iPad than the Amazon Kindle, Sony E-Reader or Barnes and Noble’s Nook.

ChangeWave surveyed 3,171 consumers right after Apple announced the iPad sometime in February.  Respondents were presented with the features and capability of the iPad before they were asked if they are keen on getting it.  The results showed that 4% respondent that they will most likely buy the iPad, while 9% answered somewhat likely.

Quite interestingly, the percentage of those who answered that they are most likely to buy the iPad is almost the same percentage as those who plans to buy it prior to the iPad’s launch. This means that after knowing about the specs and features of the iPad, those who wants to get it remains the same.

To make more meaning to their data, ChangeWave also compared pre-launch demand of the iPhone and the iPad and found that the pre-launch demand for the iPad is greater than the pre-launch demand for the iPhone.

Another interesting findings of the report showed that current Kindle and other e-book readers replied that they would have bought the iPad if it were already available when they purchased their current e-readers. So, this somehow shows how the iPad will affect sales of existing e-books since potential buyers might also consider getting the iPad instead.

So, let me now turn the table to you our dear readers. If you are planning to get an e-book reader, will you consider getting the iPad or the other e-book readers available in the market today?

Popular Science Archives Now Available Online

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If you are a gadget freak, chances are you’re reading Popular Science. In fact, it might be your most favorite technology magazine. Did you know that Popular Science has been around for 137 years already?

Now, here’s the good news, Pop Sci the web wing of Popular Science has already scanned the entire issues of the magazine and has put up the archives available on the internet. By archives, I mean digital archives.  The project was in close collaboration of  PopSci with Google Books.

The Popular Science Archives is freely available on this site.  The moment the home page loads on your web browser, you’d immediately notice a simple search box.  That search box is your only way of getting into specific issues of the magazine.  A cool feature of this archive is the fact that it even has the original advertisements that appeared on when the magazine issue was released.

The online archives does not allow you to go into specific issues of the magazine except for the instance when you are brought to specific issues via the search function.  It would have been better if a browse option is available though especially if you have  not particular topic in mind and you just want to look back at what’s hip and cool in technology of bygone years.

Google Turns Email Notifications for Wave

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I know for a fact that Google Buzz and Google Wave are two different services. But we can’t discount the fact that their functions are almost similar.  So let me ask you this question, since Google Buzz was released, are you still using Google Wave? If yes, then you’d be glad to know that Google has just activated email notification for Google Wave.

Google Wave’s notification works just like all the other Google notification systems – Buzz, Email Alerts for specific search results and others. It sends you email alerts whenever a wave that you are participating in gets an update or whenever a new Wave has been created by your Google Wave contacts. The notification contains a short summary of text and links that will lead you straight to the updated waves. Once you’ve checked out a wave, Google will stop sending the notifications related to that wave.

The feature also lets you select the frequency of email updates that will be sent to you. It could be as often as “immediately,” and you can select which of your friends you will like to receive notifications from, whenever they create a new wave or update an existing one.

Now, should you decide to use this feature, expect to encounter the following known issues so far, which Google is currently resolving. But don’t let this stop you from trying out the new Google Wave notification feature.

  • Sometimes the email snippet does not show all participants on the wave
  • Under certain conditions you may get an update about a wave even if you were the last person to change it
  • To change the notifications setting you have to go back to the menu where you turned it on. (The link at the bottom of the notification emails is not working yet.)

Vlingo iPhone App Adds Voice Command for SMS and Email Messaging

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While voice search and voice-to-text have  been default features  of Google’s Nexus One, Vlingo which pioneered voice control app for the BlackBerry last year believes that this technology can be extended to email messaging. As such, Vlingo has updated it’s iPhone app by adding the ability to send e-mail and SMS messages using voice commands.

Vlingo is offering these two new features as in-app upgrades which you can choose to get by paying $6.99 for each feature or $9.99 for both. This may seem a pretty fair deal for email messaging but not for SMS especially if you’ve use the Nexus One’s free voice-to-text app.

While I have no plans of getting Vlingo with these features for my iPhone, Mashable’s Christina Warren notes that the app’s voice-activated web search lets you select your default search engine although you can still use other search engine if you wish to.

She also noticed that voice recognition is pretty good as well. Hopefully better than the Nexus One’s poor voice recognition feature. Now, I’m beginning to get interested with this app. You know what, I think I will get this as soon as I’ve checked if my iPhone still has some room for another app.

In addition to this, Vlingo has also updated its iPhone app’s interface by making it more streamlined and easier to select what options you want to use.

I’m currently downloading Vlingo (iTunes Link)  from the Apps Store right now. Will update this post as soon as I test out these features.

Update: Alright, I agree, Vlingo’s voice recognition is pretty good. It was able to recognize what I said the first time I tried it. Yes, it’s better than the Nexus One’s voice recognition feature. I’m getting the paid features now.