In mid-October, Google surprisingly announced that Google Data Studio is now Looker Studio. This change was accompanied by a variety of other shifts occurring with Google and Looker’s business intelligence unification. Analytics programs within the Google Cloud Suite now belong under the Looker brand, as they move toward incorporating more Google technologies of artificial intelligence and machine learning in accessible data platforms such as Looker Studio.

What is Looker?

Looker is a business intelligence platform founded in 2011 as an independent company; in 2020, it was acquired by Google Cloud in the hopes of partnering to make business data more accessible and helpful for users. Looker and Google are creating a business intelligence suite that goes beyond dashboards and works to infuse analytics in all areas of business to strengthen the decision-making process.

What is Data Studio?

Data lovers know how useful Google’s Data Studio is at visualizing data. The platform is a customizable tool for reporting and dashboarding that provides easy access to many data sources, including Google Suite products, and visualization features including charts, tables, interaction controls and much more that powers users to tell a story with data.

None of that is going away after this shift, except for the name. And while this may seem like a simple name change, Looker Studio is actually expanding data visualization capabilities for users within the platform.

What’s new with Looker Studio?

Looker Studio will now support over 800 data sources and 600 connectors, eventually looking to include other visualization tools such as Salesforce’s Tableau. Another data improvement users can look forward to are Looker data models. Currently, the models are only available to preview, but with this feature, users will be able to bring in more data by combining several data sources.

Looker Studio, just like Data Studio, is available at no cost. However, there will be a new version of this visualization tool called Looker Studio Pro that will include features intended for larger companies with many users. Looker Studio Pro will come equipped with new enterprise management features, team collaboration capabilities and SLAs (service-level agreements).

Another incredible feature of Looker Studio is its ability to pull real-time data visuals from Looker Studio directly into another Google product, such as Gmail or Google Slides. The Looker Cloud Suite is on its way to creating a robust data ecosystem for business.