Last week, Google unveiled a search tool that aims to consolidate all the different repositories on data all over the world into a single searchable database. Called Dataset Search, the search engine will index the fragmented datasets that institutions publish online.
An excerpt from the report published in The Register:
“Data Sets and related data tend to be spread across multiple data repositories on the web. In many cases, information about these data sets is neither linked nor has it been indexed by search engines, making data discovery tedious or, in some cases, impossible.”
“By providing our users with a single interface that allows them to search across multiple repositories, we hope to transform how data is being published and used. We also believe that this project will have the additional benefits of a) creating a data sharing ecosystem that will encourage data publishers to follow best practices for data storage and publication and b) giving scientists a way to show the impact of their work through citation of data sets that they have produced.”
