gCensus

I just read a blog posting on John Battelle's Searchblog about Google's next big project. Imran Haque has developed this new innovation by combining Google Earth with Census data to form gCensus. gCensus uses Keyhole Markup Language (KML) to create different colors and shapes that combines with the census data. This program allows the user to create maps that display demographic information over the geographic information that is currently provided by Google Earth. For instance a user can generate an overlay of population, age, race, and/or family size distributions.

This steps the world of GoogleMaps and Earth up to a whole new level. Not only will this be useful for the everyday, at home user but it will prove to be beneficial in the business world as well. It will bring previously difficult to obtain information to the world's fingertips. It will allow marketers to create the appropriate promotional mix in specific areas instead of mass marketing which we have been trying to slowly step away from. For instance they will be able to segment by demographics much more efficiently by the use of this visual tool. In addition, another benefit is the cost cutting aspect. Large amounts of time and money will no longer have to be put out on marketing research.