Got big JSON? BigQuery expands data import for large scale web apps by Ryan Boyd, Developer Advocate.
From the post:
JSON is the data format of the web. JSON is used to power most modern websites, is a native format for many NoSQL databases hosting top web applications, and provides the primary data format in many REST APIs. Google BigQuery, our cloud service for ad-hoc analytics on big data, has now added support for JSON and the nested/repeated structure inherent in the data format.
JSON opens the door to a more object-oriented view of your data compared to CSV, the original data format supported by BigQuery. It removes the need for duplication of data required when you flatten records into CSV. Here are some examples of data you might find a JSON format useful for:
- Log files, with multiple headers and other name-value pairs.
- User session activities, with information about each activity occurring nested beneath the session record.
- Sensor data, with variable attributes collected in each measurement.
Nested/repeated data support is one of our most requested features. And while BigQuery’s underlying infrastructure supports it, we’d only enabled it in a limited fashion through M-Lab’s test data. Today, however, developers can use JSON to get any nested/repeated data into and out of BigQuery.
It had to happen. “Big Json” that is.
My question is when “Bigger Data” is going to catch on?
If you got far enough ahead, say six to nine months, you could copyright something like “Biggest Data” and start collecting fees when it comes into common usage.