Google Visualization API

Recently, Google announced their new Visualization API. After Andrew's presentation on Monday, I was curious if it supported RDF data or other semantic web formats. From what I've been able to find so far, it seems to only accept tabular data, like spreadsheets.

This blog brings up the point that even if it's not using semantic web formats, Google can still pull semantic information from the charts and visualizations.

Google gets the raw chart data – the figures, the titles, etc. Google now has an easy way to index that data in their search results, without needing to try to analyse the PNG graphic files. So if you search for "third quarter cheese sales in London" you can be sent straight to the page containing that chart. It's a small but very useful step towards the semantic web. -Roger Browne