Geocoding using Google Fusion Tables

Lets say that you are looking at data that involves people from multiple locations and you are trying to find if there are any areas that have larger volumes of interest or representation in you data set. One very important way to analyze or visualize this kind of data is to map it.

Google has created a new way of mapping data, or geocoding, using there cloud based Drive platform. The following will be a tutorial on how to input the data and then geocode data onto a map of the United States using Fusion Tables, but the process can be done over a small area, say a city or sate, in the same way. (Below is a representation of the outcome we want to achieve. Each of the red dots represent a data point, in this case 160.)

The first step is to get a data set that contains the information that you want to  view and the location of the data points. It is important that the location of the data points is contained in its own column of an excel style spreadsheet. Later you will see that the location must be in a column by itself because the fusion table will automatically geocode based only on this column. The photo below shows the data set that I will be geocoded.

The next step is to log into Google Drive (Most well know this as Google Docs). Click on "Create" and choose "Connect More Apps". Because Fusion Tables are new to Google Drive, this app well need to be added. Once the app has been added, click "Create" and then choose "Fusion Table". A dialog box will open allowing you to import your data. In my work with fusion tables, it never allowed me to import data from a Google spreadsheet but it did import from Excel without problem.

Once the data has been imported, it well open up to a table like the one below.

The next step is to have the program geocode based on the column that has the location of each data point. Select "File" and then "Geocode". This well open a dialog box like the one below. Select the appropriate column and click "Start". Geocoding can take a long time depending on the number of data points that you wish to geocode.

Once the geocoding is complete, you can select the Map tab at eh top of the table and view the map.

Below is a table that I created that contains over 9,600 data points.

The stacking of data points can be seen here give some indication of imtensity.

One of the cool things that these Fusion Tables allow you to do is drill down into a smaller region in the same data sets. The picture below is a zoomed in view of the state if California.

And going even further, the area of Los Angles.

This link well allow you to view the map that I created: https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?viz=MAP&q=select+col0+from+1OVPgb3sIiVTwsm2kbf3SuzjRmDNW3S3lkN3asCk&h=false&lat=33.642559455929344&lng=-117.6455234375&z=9&t=1&l=col0&y=2&tmplt=2

This link is a blog entry that shows how one website used Fusion Tables to map Bicycle Trails:http://blog.mtbguru.com/2010/02/24/mtbguru-tracks-as-seen-through-google-fusion-tables/