Skip to main content

Google’s Data GIF Maker will make your facts and figures more palatable

It may be useful, but if you can’t get anyone to look at it (or understand it), data doesn’t do anything for anyone. After all, how many numbers can you really look at before your eyes glaze over and you begin forgetting what you were looking for in the first place? Luckily, there may be a solution. Meet the Data GIF Maker, a new tool from Google that wants to help data scientists, journalists, and others who depend upon data to support their ideas better communicate their evidence to their audience.

Indeed, the Data GIF Maker was designed specifically with storytellers in mind, as Google notes, “Data visualizations are an essential storytelling tool in journalism.” And while much of this data, especially when it’s meaningful, tends to be highly involved, Google says that it doesn’t necessarily have to be complicated — at least, not to the layman.

And that’s where data GIFs come in.

Recommended Videos

Meant to help the mobile generation more easily visualize information formatted specifically for their smart devices, these data animations are meant to be used for a “variety of sophisticated storytelling approaches among data journalists,” Google says. And with this new tool, journalists will be able to show share of interest for two opposing topics.

So how does it work? First, GIF makers will need to enter two data points. “We typically use the tool to represent competing search interest, but it can show whatever you want it to — polling numbers, sales figures, movie ratings, etc,” Google explains. “If you want to show search interest, you can compare two terms in the Google Trends explore tool, which will give you an average number (of search interest over time) for each term. Then input those two numbers in Data GIF Maker.”

Then, you’ll add your text, choose your colors, select your explanatory text, and then click “Launch Comparisons,” and finally, “Download as GIF.” That’s all it takes to create an animated version of all that critical information you want to share.

So if you’re looking for a way to make your information more easily digestible, you may took a look at Data GIF Maker from Google.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Running out of storage on your Google Pixel 9? Here’s how to get more
The Google Pink 9 in its pink color.

The Google Pixel 9 is finally here, promising some impressive upgrades. The good news is that the minimum storage you get on this phone is 128GB. The bad news, following in the footsteps of an overarching industrywide trend, is that there is no native option for storage expansion — even if you have the Pixel 9 Pro or Pixel 9 Pro XL.

That’s a particularly undesirable status quo, especially for a phone that primarily caters to an audience hoping to click a ton of pictures and videos. However, there are still a few ways to make the best of the storage situation on the Pixel 9, even though it doesn’t support expansion via a microSD card.
Is there any hope?

Read more
4 ways Google is making Android more accessible to everyone
Updates to Android accessibility features as of August 2024.

While most of the attention will inevitably be focused on the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro today, Google also made some interesting announcements around accessibility in Android at its Made by Google event. Also, likely to the surprise of nobody at all, they include some AI. Here are the four ways Google is improving accessibility in Android.
Magnifier

Originally released in 2023, Magnifier is a very helpful app that only works on Pixel phones. It uses the camera to help people zoom in on the world around them to make reading signs, menus, and other visual guides easier. By integrating AI into Magnifier, it now has a visual search using keywords so you can find relevant terms quickly. Plus, a picture-in-picture view gives you both an overview of what you’re looking at, along with any zoomed-in area.

Read more
Google Gemini is about to get a lot more useful on your Android phone
Google Gemini app on the Motorola Razr Plus 2024.

Google isn’t planning on hitting the breaks on Gemini anytime soon. After first teasing a number of new extensions during Google I/O 2024, a recent APK teardown from Android Authority has revealed a ton of unannounced, useful new features from Gemini that are soon coming to your Android phone. Gemini is expected to get a variety of new extensions that will allow integration into Google services like Keep, Tasks, and Calendar.

Each of the extensions seems to provide useful features, and Android Authority has demo videos showcasing each. With Google Keep, you can now ask Gemini to create new notes and lists, add information to notes, and add or remove items from lists. Google Tasks now lets you use Gemini to create new tasks, including reminders. It’ll also allow you to view existing tasks and show their due dates.

Read more