Google Said To Be Prepping Launch Of Social Science Data Network

Google has in the last few months been very much focused on consumers (and the business which cater to consumers). The company has leveled a good deal of attention at YouTube and AdSense and so forth, all in its ongoing pursuit to better serve its users - and make more cash to boot.

But on occasion, Mountain View does some high-minded good. Just a couple of days ago, Larry, Sergey and gang pledged a pile of pennies to, in the words of our own Kristen Nicole, “make the world a better place.”

And now the tech giant is (selflessly) thinking again about the world of science and how it can better put its data storage prowess to use to benefit the frizz-haired genii walking the planet. Google is putting the finishing touches on a storage system to be reserved exclusively for the modern Einsteins among us to aggregate and share mathematical quandaries and solutions with their fellow whitecoats. Of course, it’ll be free of any cost to all of its users.

Google’s Research domain, where the new service is slated to have its launch, isn’t entirely new. It has indeed been active for quite a long while. But Google has more or less kept that area a rather silent space in which a small coterie of number crunchers and educators has participated. The company wants to change that. Since its revelation of a planned Web-based science center, originally dubbed “Palimpsest,” at the Science Foo camp in August ’07, Google has worked on building the framework for an open-source scientific nexus meant to attract minds the world over.

It planned to officially introduce the system during the week of Jan 14, but has evidently delayed its release. Alexis Madrigal of Wired Science said yesterday that it would have its debut “soon.”

What should a scientist expect in “Palimpsest” when it arrives? A hybrid of the data visualization technology Trendalyzer and a social, YouTube-like annotation and commentary solution. What does that mean, exactly? Heck if I know. Venture over to this Pimm blog post to cycle through a brief slide show to get some measure of what one will likely encounter on launch day.