Looking for Public Data?

If you are looking for public data to include in corporate presentations, charts or reports, look no further than Google's new search service, based on an acquisition of Trendalyzer.  The service essentially provides instant and easy access to a wealth of governmental census data and statistics. 

In classic Google fashion, the data is easily obtained through their normal search box.  Just type in the type of data you want, for example, "population" and then the US state or county of interest, and Google presents the thumbnail chart.  Clicking on the thumbnail chart takes you to the full chart page, with filters on the left.

Out of curiosity, we searched for "unemployment rate california", and here is the search results (click on the image to view larger version):

You'll notice the URL of the first result is google.com/publicdata indicating the source is from the new public data search service.

Then, clicking on the thumbnail graph takes us to the full graph with county filters on the left (click image to view larger version):

Thanks Google for making this public data easily available.

More info here: googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/adding-search-power-to-public-data.html