Google Snaps Up Stats Tool from Swedish Charity

paulraps writes "A stats program that began as a teaching aid for a university lecture has just been bought by Google for an undisclosed sum. The statistics tool, Trendalyzer, was developed by a professor and his son at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute. Unfortunately for the developers, the project has been run under the auspices of a charity, Gapminder, and financed over the last seven years by public money. Maybe that seemed smart at the time, but the professor, admitting that he won't see a dime of Google's cash, now seems regretful. As for what Google has purchased: 'Public organizations around the world invest 20 billion dollars a year producing different kinds of statistics. Until now, nobody has thought of collecting all the information in the same place. That should be possible with Trendalyzer, which will be able to present that quantity of data in a clear way as well as giving the user the ability to compare many different kinds of information.'"

What does it do?

[dour power]

Neither article nor summary explain what Trendalyzer actually does. The animated mapping of stats at http://tools.google.com/gapminder [google.com] is a little more illustrative.

Re:What does it do?

[ghoti]

If you want to know what this is about, watch Hans Rosling's ("the professor") excellent talk [google.com]. This is about bringing lots of data that were collected with public money online so they can actually be used. Rosling uses simple but effective visualization tools (and is a great speaker) to get people interested in the data.

Re:Ulterior Motives

[Short Circuit]

No, the benefit here seems to be less for the end-users deploying the service and more for whoever google then turns around and sells the massive amounts of correlated information to. For instance, let's see every bit of data about a specific user so we can see everything from each search he does to his entire browsing trail. Bet we could sell that for a lot of money!

You've got it backwards...statistics aren't useful when you zoom in to focus on individuals, they're useful when you zoom out to focus on groups. Marketing is rarely about selling to an individual, but to selling to masses. Individuals have too many quirks and preferences to make per-individual marketing efforts worthwhile. Why spend all that effort to gaurantee a sale to one individual, when you can spend the same amount to sell to two or three persent of a group of a few thousand?

"Targeted" advertisements are still group-based efforts. Your individual browsing history is only valuable up to the point where you can be lumped into a marketing stereotype.

About ten years ago, I went online searching for prices on printer ribbons for an IBM Proprinter II. The email address I supplied one website is still receiving spam from that one encounter, not for Proprinter ribbons, not for dot matrix supplies, but for inkjets and toner cartridges. I got lumped into a "shops for printer supplies online" marketing group; nobody's ever sent me an offer for supplies for my Proprinter II. (Though, once he found out I had a use for it, a guy handed me a box of 8.5"x11" tractor feed paper yesterday.)

Hans Rosling and Trendalyzer video from TAD 2006

[chriss]

I think one has to see Rosling work with Trendalyzer to appreciate what that piece of software can do. He got standing ovations for his presentation at the TED conference in 2006 [ted.com]. Very cool.

Hans Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden's world-renowned Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a non-profit that brings vital global data to life. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, he debunks a few myths about the "developing" world.[from the TED site]

Always thought statistics was boring..

[vasanth]

I always thought statistics was boring but the video by the prof http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2670820702 819322251 [google.com] really intrigued me, statistics makes so much sense when presented properly... the numbers not only make sense but also explains their relation with other statistics giving a much broader view.. I'm sure a tool like this would be a boon to decision makers...

Re:Didn't he already get paid?

[Anonymous Coward]

He doesn't really complain. He set up the foundation on purpose. The reporter asked him if he would like a couple of billion and he said sure (who wouldn't?)

There is no bad guy in this so called drama.

The object of the Foundation shall be to promote sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.

So not only does the Gapminder foundation, which he started, get money from Google but the tool and data also gets publicity and free hosting.

Besides, he already has a cushy job, tenure at a prestigious medical university as professor in international medicine.