Visualization -- Can You See It?

I read an article on CNN's web site about people who've married the mapping function available from Google with data from other sources to create vastly useful web sites that go far beyond the dry display of data. I am seriously impressed.

There's a guy who's tied data from the Chicago Police Department's web site to Google's mapping ability to create a map that shows, by type, what kinds of crimes are prevalent where. Another tied data from the state of Florida's Sexual Predator database to that same mapping ability to create a clickable map showing who might be living in your neighborhood, including mug shot. Another ties data from Craigslist on available housing with Google to create a display of any area (any known to Craigslist, that is) showing where the housing is and details about it.

And then there's this, just to pull a single reference from a Snap search.

I like to mull over how data can be presented more effectively. I am rarely able to come up with anything dramtic, though -- stacked boxes in Excel Chart are more my speed. To see the ingenuity displayed in that article -- it awes me.