Recent controversy about the budget of the BBC here in the UK made me curious about its spending. Here’s the BBC-o-Gram, a visualization I created for the Guardian Datablog, exploring the costs of running one of the biggest broadcasters in the world.

See the visual. Explore the data.

Do they provide good value?

A piece exploring the myths around 2012, Mayan Prophecy, geomagnetic reversal, The Long Count, consciousness shifts, Hunab Ku, galactica alignment, the Precession Of The Equinoxes, rogue planet Nibiru, solar storms, pole shifts, timewave zero, the return of Quetzalcoatl and THE END OF THE WORLD December 21st 2012!

Make up your own mind

UPDATE 1 (8 Dec 09): There’s now a Portuguese version of 2012 (thanks Ricardo Vieira) and a French version DEUUUUXMIIIILLEDOUUUUZE (thanks to Olivier!)

Thanks to data gathering by Brian Solis. My data here.

In passing, it’s interesting how Google Ad Planner gives detailed data on every big website online. But not on any of Google’s own sites.

They’ve been quietly championing infographics and visual information in their ‘Transparency’ section for a few years now. Many of their images are America-centric. But a lot highlight global concerns. Here are some of my favourites.

The Pacific Plastic Gyre
They were all over the huge lump of plastic in the ocean story before anyone else.

No More Fish in the Sea
This is pretty – and makes me want to look at it

China
I also like these Visual FAQs on the superpower. Visual FAQs are the way to go.

Vampire Energy
Important information wrapped in a cheeky concept. Pretty strong visual incentive to turn off that Plasma.

Solar Power
Staring at the potential of solar power.

Here the Transparency section on their site. You can also see the full set on Flickr

Please let me know any good ones you find or any other great visualizers out there. Me likeee.

Billions spent on this. Billions spent on that. What does it all look like? Hopefully The Billion Dollar Gram will help.

This image arose out of a frustration with the reporting of billion dollar amounts in the media. That is, they’re reported as self-evident facts, when, in fact, they’re mind-boggling and near incomprehensible without context. But they can start to be understood visually and relatively, IMHO.

(This is one of the first images I created for my book. So a lot of the figures are from 2006/07. I’ve also visually cheated slightly here and there to make everything fit)

I hoping this will be a “living image” that I’ll keep updating all the time. So if you find any interesting, juicy or eye-popping billions, please comment below (with a source). Let’s see how high we can make this image!

Off the back of the recent timeline of global media scare stories, I got curious about what searches actually look like.

For example, the search “violent video games” reveals a very distinct pattern.

Why that distinct pattern? If you add the dates, it clarifies things:

Every April and November the issue flares up. Why?

April 20th is the anniversary of the Columbine Massacre. Though dimishing, the echoes of that event still reverberate through the group mind.

Not sure about the November peak? Maybe because Christmas video games are announced?

Face Off

A cool thing about Insights. You can pile multiple search terms into the interface and force them into a face off. A bit like putting a fly and a spider and an earwig in a bottle. You’ve done that, right?

I like this one for putting the Twitter hype in perspective.

It’s also good for the settling of age old conflicts.

(Though, technically, the results for ‘apple’ might get some noise for people searching for the popular fruit online)

Why those big peaks?

Hahah. Brilliant. Those peaks occur at the height of summer in July. Though there was a considerable dip in 2007. Bad summer then? Maybe we could map these to global temperatures to make a more human (and tasty) barometer of weather fluctuations. Maybe future super-ironic generations will use searches for “ice cream” as climate records?

ANYWAY. Insights a great fun tool for scoping patterns in data or to rate preferencess – or even to help with personal decisions.

Have a play. Let me know any cool stuff you come up with.

Watch out! A timeline of global media scare stories.