UPDATED 03:05 EDT / MAY 27 2016

NEWS

Google takes on Microsoft & Tableau with free data visualization tool

Google is upping its game in the business analytics market with the launch of Data Studio, a free version of its new reporting and data visualization tool, Google Data Studio 360.

While the free, beta version isn’t quite as robust as the paid offering, users can still create as many as five multi-page reports that can be shared with and edited by an unlimited number of users. The product is being offered in the U.S. now, before being rolled out to other regions later this year.

Google Data Studio can pull data from a variety of sources, including Google AdWords and Google Analytics, YouTube, BigQuery, Google Sheets and Attribution 360. It can be accessed via datastudio.google.com, and Google makes it easy to get started with a quick overview of the tool and a number of sample reports. To get started, all you need to do is click the blue button in the bottom right corner to begin importing your own data.

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“One of the fundamental ideas behind Data Studio is that data should be easily accessible to anyone in an organization. We believe that as more people have access to data, better decisions will be made,” writes Google in a blog entry.

Google’s philosophy here is somewhat similar to Microsoft’s Power BI software, which was the very first product it released after Satya Nadella took over as the company’s CEO. Power BI is a tool that lets ‘normal’ people gain insights from the masses of data their companies collect, without needing the help of a data scientist. Nadella has previously called Power BI the “next giant leap” in business intelligence, and it seems Google is eager to take the plunge as well.

We should note that Google is also competing against a slew of smaller companies like Tableau Software Inc., Domo Inc., and Tidemark Systems Inc., which offer free tools, as well.

The paid version, Google Data Studio 360, is part of Google’s new Analytics 360 suite, which was unveiled earlier this year. Google also sells each product in its suite individually, so, for example, marketers who use the website testing and personalization tool Optimize 360 will not be required to pay for something like Google Analytics 360 if they never use it.

It’s not clear if Google will release free versions of the other tools in its Analytics 360 suite, but Babak Pavalan, product manager for Google Analytics, told Marketing Land that “all options are on the table.”

Businesses that want all the premium features will of course, need to purchase a subscription for Data Studio 360. Still, the free version at least gives companies and private individuals a taste of the functionality Google can offer.


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