If you’re a Google user (Gmail, Youtube, Google+ and Docs) or developer and eagerly await new tools from the ubiquitous internet giant, you may have already heard of Fusion Tables.
Fusion Tables has been floating around Google Labs for a couple of years, graduating in 2010 and recently footing some improvements. You can access Fusion Tables while logged in under the Google top bar: More > Even more > Innovation. While you may wonder when the “Lots More, I Ain’t Lyin” menu is going to be added, it’s worth mentioning that there is even less under Even more as the internet giant has recently nixed several software projects. Regardless, Fusion Tables is easy to use and supported by several tutorials and help resources. What does it do? In short, it will let you share maps and GIS data with or without use of an API. Here are a few standout features:
- Load kml documents up for sharing on the web
- Combine your data with Google maps basemaps such as roads, imagery and terrain
- Relate kml documents and tables for sharing complex data
- Make your shared pages searchable by Google search
- Share analysis in the form of timelines, maps and graphs
Some of these features are available in MyMaps (within Google maps) and Google Earth. But Fusion Tables is a step above the novelties of Google Earth and limitations of MyMaps, such as:
* Share large geographic datasets on a single page (unlike MyMaps which may spread map data across several pages)
* Paste or upload spreadsheet data with geographic or time columns to create map or graph visualizations
* Sharing and collaboration with data underlying map or graph visualizations
* Data elements within datasets can have different permissions across users
* Create dynamic links for Google Earth so that it will access live data
* Maps can be combined with other analytics such as graphs and timelines
Google has provided some powerful and easy to use mapping tools with Fusion Tables. It’s a great solution for non production mapping projects where data needs to be shared. If you’re going to post frequent data changes you can use the API for performing CRUD operations. Depending on your needs, Fusion Tables is an alternative to developing and hosting your own simple mapping services. To summarize, a few key values of Fusion Tables are:
- Quickly stand up a web map and share it
- Leverage quick web sharing options like dynamic links and embedded html
- Change and manage data while sharing with others
- Combine mapping and analytics for sharing across users
Fusion Tables isn’t going to replace custom online mapping applications, but it can provide a “quick and dirty” solution to sharing GIS and analytics data on the web.
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