Last week we launched some new features in Motion Charts. Instead of telling you what they were, we decided to let you discover them for yourself and post what you found in our blog comments.
It didn't take long for several of you to find the new features. Karthik was first to notice that you can now control bubble opacity and that you can zoom into the chart. This is a great feature that allows you to eliminate the distraction of outliers and focus on the core data set. Nick and Adrian P. also found the zooming and panning feature and the bar charts, but a special Congratulations is in order to Rajeev Edmonds who found (almost) all of the new features.
One feature hinted at in Rajeev's comment bears a little more explanation. It's now easier to find specific data points because there's a Select list which has all the data points listed in alphabetical order. So, instead of mousing over the dots or barchart, you can just select them in the Select list. And then, when you don't need the labels anymore, you deselect all the data points by clicking "Deselect all."
A couple of not-so-new features were also identified. Lin/Log scale and the ability to bookmark charts have been there all along -- but we're happy that you've noticed them again :)
As far as the Advanced State string, this little feature was built to support hard-core flash developers who work with the Motion Charts tool, but was not actually intended to make it into Google Analytics. In other words, it's a (harmless) bug, so thanks to everyone for noticing it!
So what do you think about the scavenger hunt idea? We've never heard of anyone else launching features this way and we thought it was a bit unique -- did you like it? Are you clear on what the features are now? Do you use Motion Charts? Leave us a comment and let us know.
It didn't take long for several of you to find the new features. Karthik was first to notice that you can now control bubble opacity and that you can zoom into the chart. This is a great feature that allows you to eliminate the distraction of outliers and focus on the core data set. Nick and Adrian P. also found the zooming and panning feature and the bar charts, but a special Congratulations is in order to Rajeev Edmonds who found (almost) all of the new features.
One feature hinted at in Rajeev's comment bears a little more explanation. It's now easier to find specific data points because there's a Select list which has all the data points listed in alphabetical order. So, instead of mousing over the dots or barchart, you can just select them in the Select list. And then, when you don't need the labels anymore, you deselect all the data points by clicking "Deselect all."
A couple of not-so-new features were also identified. Lin/Log scale and the ability to bookmark charts have been there all along -- but we're happy that you've noticed them again :)
As far as the Advanced State string, this little feature was built to support hard-core flash developers who work with the Motion Charts tool, but was not actually intended to make it into Google Analytics. In other words, it's a (harmless) bug, so thanks to everyone for noticing it!
So what do you think about the scavenger hunt idea? We've never heard of anyone else launching features this way and we thought it was a bit unique -- did you like it? Are you clear on what the features are now? Do you use Motion Charts? Leave us a comment and let us know.
