What is Google Big Service and should you be interested

Google has recently released the BigQuery service, what is this I hear you ask

I shall quote Google themselves, you can read more about it here

What is Google BigQuery Service?

Google BigQuery Service is a service for running SQL-like queries against very large datasets, with potentially billions of rows. This can be your own data, or data that someone else has given you access to.

Data is imported as tabular data from a CSV file. Supported data types are string, integer, IEEE floating point number, and boolean. Only SELECT queries are supported; you cannot run UPDATE, APPEND, or DELETE statements as queries.

BigQuery works best for interactive analysis of very large datasets, typically using a small number of very large, append-only tables. For more traditional relational database scenarios, you might consider using Google Cloud SQL instead.

You can use BigQuery through a graphical browser-based query page, a command-line tool, or by making direct calls to the REST API. Learn more.

Currently BigQuery is available by invitation only. If you are interested in signing up for BigQuery, please fill out this form.

I originally read about this in this article which gives a good overview of what it is.

it seems to give the ability to run select statements against the internet! This could prove to be a very powerful and useful tool.

At the same time I also notice something called Google Cloud SQL, which is basically SQL databases on the internet. this makes sense really because does it really matter where the database is? You really just want to store stuff on it, so if it’s in a server room in the building or in a building somewhere in the world it doesn’t really matter as long as you can get at the data quick. This page will tell you a bit more about Google Cloud SQL

Why am I mentioning this?

Google is a powerful entity and can slowly and quietly bring in new services which soon dominate. I remember when Google maps was launched, it was quite clever but not really that impressive when you first had a look at it but now it’s the first map service anyone uses on the internet, if I need to work out how to get somewhere I get directions from Google maps. Before Google maps came about there were and still are lots of other map supplying sites but Google has trampled all over them.

The same thing happened with Gmail, before it hotmail was the main online email account.

There are of course many times when Google has tried new things and failed, like buzz and who knows if Google + will catch on, I’m not convinced it is much better than Facebook to go to the effort of transferring information across, although I do think I am suffering from social interaction fatigue (I don’t want to hear all these pointless status updates)

Still it’s worth knowing about because Google can sometimes offer some excellent products which can over a few years seem the norm.