Google just launched a GIF maker to make your data look better

Google wants to help make your research look better.

To help journalists share their research and tell stories in a more visual and appealing way, Google just launched Data GIF Maker, a data visualization creator.

"Data visualizations are an essential storytelling tool in journalism, and though they are often intricate, they don’t have to be complex," Google wrote in their announcement. " In fact, with the growth of mobile devices as a primary method of consuming news, data visualizations can be simple images formatted for the device they appear on."

The project came out of Google's News Lab, an initiative to support journalists and storytelling. The lab also created the popular Google Trends project.

To make a data gif with Google's new tool, simply add two terms, their titles, and an additional description (for our test, we used data from a 2014 study about how people pronounce internet terms):

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The tool will then generate a handy gif like this:

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Right now the tool is very basic and currently supports comparisons between only two data points, meaning it's not the best fit for complex data and comparisons. But for simple visualizations, Data Gif Maker is extremely easy to use. By adding some color and animation, journalists can make the research they're trying to share a lot easier and more pleasant to consume, rather than listing the same information in text.

The tool is free to use and you can try it here.