Editor’s Picks: Coolest Data Tools of 2016 So Far
Here are our top picks for new data science tools released so far this year.
![Editor’s Picks: Coolest Data Tools of 2016 So Far Editor’s Picks: Coolest Data Tools of 2016 So Far](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt0a58c8a968518ae7/652467384da4a32066ebafbf/ThinkstockPhotos-175861511_0.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Here at The VAR Guy, we’re hit with a double data whammy. As journalists, we have to know how to wrestle with metrics in order to get the full story. And as journalists for channel IT, we have to know how to write about the actual technology and business applications. That means whenever a new data tool is launched, we’re like kids in a candy store.
Here are our top picks for new data science tools released so far this year.
This one is for all you marketers out there. In March, Google launched its Analytics 360 Suite to help marketing and advertising professionals gain a more accurate and targeted view of users through every single touchpoint, no matter the device or platform, and easily create drool-worthy analyses and visualizations of user data. The suite consists of six tools, some of them completely new:
Google Analytics 360 (formerly Google Analytics Premium)
Data management platform Audience Center 360 (new)
Optimize 360, which enables A/B testing (new)
Data Studio 360, where all the visualization magic happens (new and powered by BigQuery and Google Docs)
Tag Manager
Attribution 360 (formerly Adometry)
The suite integrates not only with Google resources like AdWords and DoubleClick, but with other standalone tools. Yes, please.
When Microsoft Garage, the experimental programs business unit of Microsoft, released SandDance earlier this year, chart junkies around the world were giddy. The touch-based interface! The dancing data points! The animated transitions! SandDance lets users flip from 3-D scatterplot to map to histogram to bar chart literally with the touch of a finger, making it not only easy, but actually fun to examine large data sets from multiple angles to identify patterns and outliers.
Check out this video to see SandDance in action.
MIT Media Lab, in partnership with Deloitte and the data visualization startup Datawheel, earlier this year created one of the most extensive tools ever conceived of for mining and visualizing US government open data. Data USA plumbs the depths of data sources like the US census, the National Center for Education Statistics and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to reveal macro trends in US demographics. All these datasets have been open to the public for years, but trying to mine it all for insights can be panic-inducing for people without a higher degree in data science. Data USA doesn’t just find the trends, it presents them beautifully.
The VAR Guy has a real soft spot for the City of Angels. The weather is glorious, the food is to die for, there’s culture out the wazoo and with the release of GeoHub, it’s officially become a data-driven town. GeoHub is a portal of location-based open data from more than 500 datasets produced by over 20 city and county agencies. In the channel, we all know that real, substantive improvement can only come from solid metrics. Just think of what a tool like this could do: road crews will know exactly which potholes are causing the most damage, emergency responders can reduce response times and police can identify which areas are hit by the most crime at which times. Even cooler, LA residents can use the provided APIs and software development kits to design their own projects.
At The VAR Guy we’re big fans of IBM’s efforts to enable the rise of the “citizen analyst,” so we were tickled earlier this year when Big Blue announced a huge expansion of its Cloud Data Services portfolio. Two new services in particular caught our attention: IBM Predictive Analytics and IBM Analytics Exchange. Predictive Analytics leverages a library of IBM’s machine learning models to allow developers to easily self-build predictive applications for specific use cases. And Analytics Exchange brings together over 150 publicly available datasets in an open exchange that users can integrate into applications or use for analysis. With the skills shortage in data science looming as a genuine concern for enterprises in the next few years, we’re totally in favor of giving everyday people the tools to crunch their own numbers.
Between Outlook, Lync and Skype, there are already too many ways people can distract us from writing here at The VAR Guy. So when colleagues started asking us to get on Slack, we plugged our ears like a toddler being told it’s time for bed. But then Lookerbot debuted, making a persuasive argument for the messaging tool. Just by typing a simple command within Slack, users can bring data directly into their conversations. The demonstration video shows some pretty cool capabilities, such as being able to access a map of customers, client performance metrics and account lists without leaving the conversation. Which means we might just have to add one more messaging tool to our already overflowing supply.
Between Outlook, Lync and Skype, there are already too many ways people can distract us from writing here at The VAR Guy. So when colleagues started asking us to get on Slack, we plugged our ears like a toddler being told it’s time for bed. But then Lookerbot debuted, making a persuasive argument for the messaging tool. Just by typing a simple command within Slack, users can bring data directly into their conversations. The demonstration video shows some pretty cool capabilities, such as being able to access a map of customers, client performance metrics and account lists without leaving the conversation. Which means we might just have to add one more messaging tool to our already overflowing supply.
Here are our top picks for new data science tools released so far this year.
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