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Google has just launched Google Public Data Explorer. The new Google Labs tool offers a visual way to look at and analyze large public data sets on a variety of popular search topics.

The tool is specifically designed for avid data crunchers like students, journalists, policy makers, and could be seen as Google’s prettified approach to a user-driven computational search engine (think Wolfram Alpha). Public Data Explorer is its own dedicated utility that expands and improves upon existing functionality added to the search experience last year.

Interested parties can visually dissect — in time-lapsed animation fashion and in an array of chart types — things like fertility rate by country, employment rates, and the flux of mortality rates in the U.S. Data is provided by the World Bank, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, the California Department of Education and four other public agencies. The visual animation technology comes from Trendalyzer, a service that Google purchased back in 2007.

Google Public Data Explorer covers 80 different topics in the public data sector, focusing on the most popular topics as determined by search queries on Google.com. Users can explore ready-made charts or toy with data and reshape the visualizations into line graphs, bar graphs, maps and bubble charts. Charts can also be shared by direct URL or embed.

While most of us won’t need this sophisticated of a tool on frequent occasions, it’s easy to see how this data could be extremely useful to researchers and those looking to understand the important trends that happen over time.

Tags: Google, public data, visualization

According to The New York Times, the United States Treasury Department will tomorrow give Internet services license to export consumer-aimed services like instant messaging and photo-sharing to countries with which trade has previously been restricted, including Iran, Cuba and Sudan.

The United States defines these nations as “closed societies” because their governments sometimes try to restrict the free flow of information between citizens, however in many cases trade is restricted by the United States in response to those actions. This new license would allow U.S.-based Internet companies like Yahoo to export certain services that can be described as “free mass-market software,” despite trade sanctions.

The U.S. State Department and members of Congress previously recommended this move to aid efforts to open up the societies in question. The value of exporting these tools has already been established.

Last year, the State Department asked Twitter to postpone its scheduled downtime so Iranian protesters could continue to use the service. Digital communication technologies like Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and SMS text messaging were used by Iranians to organize protests and to get information to the American and European media.

After Google threatened to leave China if the country doesn’t ease up its regulation and restrictions on the Internet, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech declaring the administration’s commitment to the free flow of information on the Internet. This is one example of that commitment.

We’re curious to know how our readers in the United States and elsewhere feel about this move. If you’re willing, share your thoughts in the comments, and participate in our poll: “Is the Internet a fundamental right?”

Tags: cuba, exports, iran, News, Political, sedan, trade, treasury department

In a study conducted by the BBC World Service, four in five respondents said they believe web access is a fundamental right. Ninety percent described the Internet as “a great place to learn,” and 78% considered it a source of “greater freedom.” A bit more than half said that the Internet should not be regulated by government at all.

Twenty-seven thousand people form 26 countries were surveyed, and their responses varied by location. While a large number of people from the United States, Mexico, Nigeria and South Korea said the Internet shouldn’t be regulated, many residents of China, Pakistan and Turkey disagreed; only 16% of Chinese, 12% of Pakistani and 13% of Turkish respondents said the Internet shouldn’t be regulated.

We’re always curious where our readers stand, especially since this is a hot issue right now with the recent struggle between Google and China. Where do you fall on this issue? Take part in the poll below, and feel free to elaborate in the comments.

Tags: News, Political, poll, rights, web

Many economists (and the President) believe that small businesses will be what reignite job growth in the U.S. Today, Intuit is out with a new way to track that theory — a monthly small business employment index that leverages payroll data from tens of thousands of customers to track hiring trends.

Specifically, the index measures hiring at roughly 50,000 companies with less than 20 employees that use Intuit Online Payroll. Much like Mint (which is now owned by Intuit) can shed insight into personal finance habits by analyzing customer data, the idea here is that in aggregate, Intuit’s small business customers can tell us which way small business is trending each month.

The company’s first report shows that there were 40,000 new small business jobs created in February, representing a 0.2% increase in its index. Moreover, its report shows that small business employment bottomed out in the middle of last year, with 150,000 jobs created in total since June, 2009:

How does Intuit’s data compare to that released monthly by the U.S. Department of Labor? In its most recent report — for January — the unemployment rate dropped from 10% to 9.7%, breaking an uptrend we’ve seen since 2007.

It;s number looks at overall employment, though — not just small businesses — so if the thesis that a recovery starts with small business is to be believed, perhaps Intuit’s data is telling us something, especially if January doesn’t prove to be an anomaly when the Department of Labor issues its next report.

In any event, we like that Intuit is leveraging its data to provide insight into broader trends. We’ve seen companies like AdMob, Flurry, and JiWire (and even Facebook and LinkedIn) do similar recently within their respective fields, and see it as an effective way for brands to build further awareness for their products.

Tags: employment, intuit, statistics

Yesterday video streaming site Ustream ran live video of local news broadcasts covering the earthquake in Chile and the ensuing Hawaii tsunami warning. Today Ustream announced that it has delivered 4.35 million streams related to the events.

Some streams were news station broadcasts, but some were live streams from cell phones on the ground.

The 8.8-magnitude earthquake hit Chile just south of Santiago at 3:34 local time yesterday. As a result, buildings collapsed and power went out in parts of Santiago — the airport was so badly damaged that it ceased operation, and the city’s Fine Arts Museum suffered serious damage. 500,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed, and at least 300 deaths have been recorded so far. More numbers are still coming in.

Tsunami warnings were announced all around the pacific, including in Hawaii, but in most cases the waves turned out not to be severe. However, the Chile town of Talcahuano was badly damaged by tsunami waves yesterday.

If these images and those posted to Twitter have moved you, you can still use social media to help. We’ve written up a quick list of ways you can easily donate to relief efforts either by text message or the web. Google launched a person finder, so if you have information about a missing person (or if you’re looking for someone) affected by the earthquake or tsunami, you can connect with others there. Finally, we’ve heard stories about people using Twitter hashtags to help one another find loved ones.

We’ve embedded a pre-recorded sample video of Ustream coverage below.

Tags: chile, chile earthquake, hawaii, hawaii tsunami, Live Stream, live video, streaming video, ustream