Now that I grabbed your attention with pirate speak, lets talk about Swivel’s new mapping feature. I introduced you to Swivel and their niffty online data analysis tools a few months ago. Things just got even better! Swivel recently introduced a feature that allows users map uploaded data.
Swivel brings the number of sites that allow users to map uploaded data to two (the other is Dataplace). Lets compare Swivel’s and Dataplace’s mapping features.

I uploaded an excel spread sheet (saved in .csv format) to both websites. The spreadsheet contained the percentage of the population that is of color for each California county. The data was derived from the 2000 Census. Both sites provided a painless and surprisingly speedy upload process.

Next, we tried to map the data. We figured that a good mapping program for poverty advocates should be able to map data at the county. Did Swivel and Dataplace deliver?

Dataplace produced a very nice map with the uploaded data. I especially appreciated the ability to change the number of data classes and the ability to select a color ramp.

Swivel had a few problems mapping the data. Although a box appeared displaying the percentage of the population that was of color in a given county when the cursor was moved over it, the map itself was all one color. In my book this pretty much sunk Swivel’s ship.

My Verdict: I recommend Dataplace for your online mapping needs…at least until Swivel works out the bugs of its new mapping feature. Both sites offer very useful data tools and I am confident that the folks at Swivel will resolve the issues with their mapping feature.