Opening Google Docs to users and developers via Gadgets and Visualization API
Posted by Jonathan Rochelle & Nir
Bar-Lev, Product Managers
Whenever we're asked "how do people use Google
spreadsheets?", we always struggle with where to start.
It's not that we can't think of examples, it's just
that the examples are all so different, so unique. Sure, there are
definitely favorite themes — sports, finance and, yes,
id="ocpt" >knitting — but then the examples
become so particular to the people and groups who are using them:
The
id="b2tt" >beer taster's results.
The nursery school class schedule. The
id="d2b7" >biker's riding
log. The family reunion plan. The ski-trip sign-up form.
Endless examples, all of which, to spreadsheet junkies like us, are
interesting.
But while we've always wanted to give people more options to
view and use their information in Google Docs, we knew that trying
to build all of these one at a time would simply serve too few
people, given all the different ways people use and share
spreadsheets.
So today we're starting a new path to better enable developers
to customize and build on top of Google Docs with two new tools we
are releasing today: Gadgets-in-Docs and the
>Visualization API.
Instead of delivering just one or two new types of reports, or a
new visual map mashup (can you ever get enough of those?), we
decided to deliver a platform on which anyone, not just Google,
could build the next best thing. We even invited a few developers
to try this with us, and they join us in this launch by featuring
just a few of their creations, like Panorama's pivot table, or
Viewpath's Gantt Chart, or InfoSoft's Funnel Charts — all
great tools for the student and enterprise user alike. We also
built a few early gadgets ourselves which you might find
useful.
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We borrowed the Gadgets-in-Docs concept from the iGoogle team, so
it's only fitting that you can also publish your spreadsheet
gadgets to iGoogle, where you can see your data-based-Gadget right
next to all that other stuff that's important to you (even if
it is just a picture of your dog).
To try it out, go into
>Google Docs and open up a spreadsheet.
Click on the chart icon, and click 'Gadget…'. Pick your
gadget, customize it to fit your data, and then publish it out to
iGoogle or to any webpage.
If you're a developer and want to reach millions of people with
your latest creation, check out the
Visualization API, courtesy of our visualization team
engineers. The Visualization API provides a platform that can be
used to create, share and reuse visualizations written by the
developer community. It provides a common way (an API) to access
structured data sources, the first being Google spreadsheets.