Google’s New Search Engine Could Solve a Major Problem in the Scientific Community

"On Wednesday, Google launched Dataset Search, a new search engine specifically geared toward collections of data. The company hopes the platform will help scientists to locate datasets quickly and painlessly.

READABLE DATA. According to a blog post, Google started the project by creating guidelines for dataset providers to ensure the search engine could understand the content of a dataset. For example, they suggested that providers should include particular information in the dataset’s metadata, such as how the provider collected the data and who can use it.

Data that follows these guidelines is easier for Google to index the datasets so that the relevant ones show up in search queries.

JUST THE BEGINNING. This first version of Dataset Search includes datasets focused on the environmental and social sciences, as well as datasets from government websites and various news organizations focused on other topics.

According to Google, the number and type of datasets included in the search engine will continue to grow as more dataset providers adopt the company’s metadata guidelines. ..."