What People Say
Curated list of quotes, references, uses and extensions about OpenRefine (previously called Google Refine & Freebase Gridworks) in the wild
"Damn! Wish I had this 5 years ago! RT @swiertz nice tools ! Format & clean your data with Google Refine http://goo.gl/UniR6 #cleanup #tools"
Xavier%20Bartholome, view%20tweet
"YIPEEEE! Google Refine works with OAI-PMH XML out of the box. This is going to make my life much easier."
"It’s kind of ridiculous how exciting I find this: https://code.google.com/p/google-refine/"
"Google Refine is like a dream come true. #grefine http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/01/06/tools-for-transparency-google-refine/ "
"I rarely feel the desire to kiss a corporation on the mouth, but Google Refine is making me come close http://goo.gl/8pvKB #datageek"
"For those who haven't looked yet, Google Refine / Gridworks 2.0 blows the doors off. Its the single best tool I'm using."
Christopher%20Groskopf, view%20tweet
"I'm sold on #Google #Refine used it most of the day with "messy" data and managed to clean nearly all of it."
"Today google #refine saved my afternoon. Every #data #hacker should try it"
"Google refine is awesome. Never before have I been home this early."
"I am having far, far too much fun with Google Refine. This tool is ridiculously powerful, even without Freebase integration."
"Not only will it clean your data, Google Refine will slice, dice and put bows on your hairdo! http://bit.ly/cPGn1E Rocks data exploration."
Mario%20Talavera, view%20tweet
"Google Refine: Making interns unneccesary since 2010."
"i'm completely in love with Google Refine. fo' reals."
"Using #Google #Refine makes me happy. Even for the easy stuff."
"Google Refine: love at first click"
"Um, this intro to Google Refine makes the data-lover in me uber-horny. http://bit.ly/8XN0xU [humps monitor]"
"Google Refine 2.0 makes this reporter so happy he could hug it. Except that he has a rule: no hugging Google products."
Jeff%20Severns%20Guntzel, view%20tweet
"Google Refine is gonna change my life"
Oh man! Google Refine is making our lives so much easier, shaving hours off analysing keyword data: http://t.co/WQotutC
Google Refine, I freakin' love you. #Badass #NerdLove #fangirl #NewBoyfriendDay
Rhiannon%20Coppin, view%20tweet
If only more people knew how amazingly powerful Google Refine was, the world would be a different place.
Mind officially blown by how great Google Refine looks for cleaning messy data. Thank you, @dfhuynh: http://ow.ly/43YnO #nicar11
Dear Google #Refine, thank you for existing and saving me from my Cut and Paste nightmares. http://code.google.com/p/google-refine/
Google you have made my world 400% easier with google refine. Im your friend.
Not too many programs are a pleasure to work with to the level of Google Refine
Victor%20Castell, view%20tweet
Google Refine, in one minute, has saved me hours of work! http://bit.ly/d3mIXG
Aaron%20Rubinstein, view%20tweet
@mattwaite tells of his despair over the hours spent cleaning data that can now be cleaned in a few minutes in Google Refine #IRE11 #gannett
@mattwaite also says #IRE2011 "It makes me want to drown in a bathtub when I look at Google Refine... all the hours of my life I've lost."
Google Refine: An empiricist's new best friend. - If you’ve never seen it before, Google Refine is a free... http://tumblr.com/x8r34dba7z
http://twitter.com/Jaron_In_Theory, view%20tweet
Finally played around with @google refine. In two clicks it did what took me several steps in #Access. #prettyawesome http://t.co/8Pj7ebE
http://twitter.com/lisachiuster, view%20tweet
Today my life was made much easier by Google Refine (http://t.co/gZm3T9X). I love it.
Totally and utterly in love with Google Refine right now...
@timesjoanna google refine is the proverbials, one of the most useful bit of data manipulation software i've used in, well, ever
Andrew%20Walkingshaw, view%20tweet
The more I learn about Google Refine the more excited I get about using it. #Analyst4Life
@edwardog @leslieyoung GRefine = godsend ... :)
Cleaning up data using Google Refine. It's a gift sent from heaven
I think I've fallen in love with google refine #infovis
Google Refine might be the greatest thing on the planet.
Crushin' on a project. The object of my affect doesn't even have to be human. Google Refine is so sharp!
Google Refine is my friend today.
The award for the biggest timesaver goes to Google Refine and its data reconciliation #epic
[https://twitter.com/electricbum Hannes Ebner], view%20tweet
10 minutes into the Google Refine session and I'm in love. #dirtydata #Nicar12
[https://twitter.com/amyjo_brown AmyJo Brown], view%20tweet
I may be late but this is quite possibly the coolest thing I've seen recently since the other side of the pillow: http://code.google.com/p/google-refine/
Google Refine is amazing - fast cluster heuristics intelligently clean up your data. Best find of 2012 so far... #analytics #data
I seriously love Google Refine. Dead simple and very useful. You don't want a Swiss army knife. Just a simple, simple hammer.
I love Google Refine.
Michael%20Grimes, view%20tweet
Where does Google come up with this stuff? Amazing data manipulation tool!
Waking up and trying to organize data with Google Refine is my version of Saturday morning cartoons.
Google Refine.. absolutely beautiful. @Reggieonthereg @IUSamParsons rock
@cspenn I LOVE Google Refine -- super fast to clean up tons of data! cc @johnjwall @iPullRank
Slavik%20Volinsky, view%20tweet
not sure how i ever did my job without google refine, now that i've figured it out
Goble says google refine - the lords' work! #jcdl2012
maureen%20henninger, view%20tweet
Google Refine, take my pain away.
[https://twitter.com/MrDys Sean Hannan], view%20tweet
Google Refine: Where the hell have you been all my life? Excel for Big Data/Regex geeks
[[https://twitter.com/geoffreymccaleb Geoffrey McCaleb], view%20tweet
Google Refine is (an outstanding) power tool for working with messy data. http://bit.ly/ak6gfC Thank you, GR devs! #DataScience
Just spent 10 hours playing with Google Refine like it was my new favorite video game.
Today is yet another day where Google Refine made my life better.
Oh Google Refine, you compl33t me.
[https://twitter.com/doriantaylor Dorian Taylor], view%20tweet
I would have sold my soul for this in 1999. https://t.co/FKw6U7XZ
<https://twitter.com/k808a Ken Andrade>, view%20tweet
Kind of in love with Google Refine right now.
<https://twitter.com/Margaret_Heller Margaret Heller>, view%20tweet
"Google Refine isn’t going to solve the problem of poor data availability, but for those who manage to gain access to existing records, it can be a powerful tool for transparency."
Rebekah%20Heacock, co-director of the Technology%20for%20Transparency%20Network and a Project Coordinator at Harvard’s Berkman%20Center%20for%20Internet%20and%20Society
"Google Refine is an immensely powerful tool for dealing with "messy" data, and it sports a myriad of advanced features for massaging and analyzing complex data sets"
Dmitri Popov (Linux%20Magazine) - Use%20Google%20Refine%20to%20Massage%20Your%20Data
"For anyone who’s ever had to sort through messy data to try to turn up a meaningful treatment, and who hasn’t, this tool is a godsend."
Michael%20Lines, SLAW - Google%20Refine%202.0
"Google Refine 2.0 will serve an excellent back-end for data visualization services. It has been well received by the Chicago Tribune and open-government data communities. Along with Google Squared, Refine 2.0 can create a powerful research tool."
Chinmoy Kanjilal, Techie Buzz - Google%20Refine%202.0:%20Power%20Tools%20for%20Working%20With%20Data
Google Refine (the program formerly known as Freebase Gridworks) is described by its creators as a “power tool for working with messy data” but could very well be advertised as “remedy for eye fatigue, migraines, depression, and other symptoms of prolonged data-cleaning.”
Dan Nguyen, ProPublica - Chapter%201.%20Using%20Google%20Refine%20to%20Clean%20Messy%20Data
The functionality offered by Google Refine is paramount and provides the user with a simple interface with powerful data manipulation capabilities. ... I solicited Ryan Boyles to develop a script to sanitize the data which, in total, took about 45 minutes to get the data into a proper format. Utilizing Google Refine I was able to replicate the work of his script in about 15 minutes!
Logan Lynn, The Data Revolution - Get%20Started%20With%20Google%20Refine%202.0
Google Refine for SEO: [["When I first saw Freebase Gridworks I was a very happy man. Here was a tool that tackled one of the biggest problems in data journalism: cleaning dirty data (and data is invariably dirty). The tool made it easy to identify variations of a single term, and clean them up, to link one set of data to another – and much more besides."
[http://ojb.journallocal.co.uk Online Journalism Blog|http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/find-keyword-modifiers-with-google-refine]]] post Data%20cleaning%20tool%20relaunches:%20Freebase%20Gridworks%20becomes%20Google%20Refine
Google Refine bills itself as a “power tool for working with messy data,” and it does not disappoint. While not a turnkey solve-all for data integrity, it makes this tedious task far less intimidating. ... Dirty data is here to stay. But with Refine, at least it’s no longer the daunting task it once was.
Matt%20Wynn - How%20journalists%20can%20use%20Google%20Refine%20to%20clean%20‘dirty’%20data%20sets
"Refine really shines when it is used to combine or transform data from multiple sources, so it's no surprise that it has been popular for open government and data journalism tasks. ... Best of all, Google Refine keeps a running changelog that lets you review and revert changes to your data -- so go ahead: play around."
Julie%20Steele (O'Reilly Radar) - Strata%20week:%20Keeping%20it%20clean
"As the open data juggernaut picks up steam, a lot of folks are going to discover what some of us have known all along. Much of the data that’s lying around is a mess. That’s partly because nobody has ever really looked at it. As a new wave of visualization tools arrives, there will be more eyeballs on more data, and that’s a great thing. But we’ll also need to be able to lay hands on the data and clean up the messes we can begin to see. As we do, we’ll want to be using tools that do the kinds of things shown in the Gridworks screencasts."
Jon%20Udell) (Microsoft - Freebase%20Gridworks:%20A%20power%20tool%20for%20data%20scrubbers
"... PowerPivot and Gridworks. Each, on its own, is an amazing tool. But the combination makes my spidey sense tingle in a way I haven’t felt for a long time."
Jon%20Udell) (Microsoft - PowerPivot%20+%20Gridworks%20=%20Wow!
"...the tool looks absolutely fantastic."
Simon%20Willison - Preview:%20Freebase%20Gridworks
"This is a tremendous contribution to the community, especially given that comparable commercial products are priced well out of range of small businesses, independent developers, and newsrooms. While we can’t tell you about any of the projects we are using it on just yet, we can say that its changing the way we look at data on a daily basis. We really can’t say enough about what a great application Gridworks is and about its myriad uses for hacker journalists and data-nerds of all stripes."
Christopher%20Groskopf (Chicago Tribune) - Data%20normalization%20par%20excellence–the%20gift%20of%20Freebase%20Gridworks
"If you’re concerned with building and maintaining collections of semi-structured data, or building your own technology for this purpose, I suggest you check out these state-of-the-art tools."
Daniel%20Tunkelang) (Google - Gridworks%20and%20Needlebase
"Gridworks is a simply amazing tool for data cleansing, analysis and, as we’ve seen, transformation. It’s set to become more so for our purposes in the near future, as it comes to support the mapping of names for things to URIs using configurable reconciliation services (which might allow it to automatically map Government Department names to URIs, for example), and the creation of RDF using a more intuitive and user-friendly approach than the templates that I’ve illustrated here."
Jeni Tennison - Using%20Freebase%20Gridworks%20to%20Create%20Linked%20Data
"Gridworks is like crack for data junkies"
Chris%20Amico (PBS%20NewsHour) view
"I think @thejefflarson is going to name a dog after Gridworks (speaking of his colleague Jeff Larson)"
Scott%20Klein (ProPublica) view
"I just got to know old data all over again using Freebase Gridworks"
Rich%20Vázquez (ImpactNews) view
"@fbase's Gridworks has taken a good day and made it truly epic. http://bit.ly/c9Ttdv Thanks for the boost guys."
Christopher%20Groskopf, view%20tweet
"Gridworks is a gamechanger, no doubt! RT @stefanomaz theory and practice behind clustering in Gridworks http://bit.ly/b0EyyB"
"I'm done here - after google (prediction-api) and metaweb (gridworks) have been through there is nothing left to do."
Gunnar%20Grimnes, view%20tweet
"http://bit.ly/93pTSL @judell "Freebase Gridworks will make you weep with joy' (via @rdmpage) Wow! Why wasn't this invented earlier"
"Freebase releases Gridworks 1.0 This is a the most useful tool I have seen in a long time. http://bit.ly/c8emxf"
"I've had so much fun alpha testing Freebase Gridworks. It is very much the powertool for working with datasets I had been waiting for."
"@JeniT freebase gridworks proves you don't need RDF to be semantic :) used it heavily over the weekend"
"Using gridworks to clean up @farmsubsidy data. This is fun :)"
"I <3 scatterplot matrix and scatterfacets! Don't know what they are? Watch this gridworks screencast: http://vimeo.com/11854491 "
Jeanne%20Kramer-Smyth, view%20tweet
"Freebase Gridworks very impressive http://bit.ly/cjx3ZX, covers many features we want in pub workbench (discovered via @JeniT)" Dave%20Reynolds, view%20tweet
"Gridworks looks amazing. Great UI for data cleansing, record linkage, schema mapping. We need this for #linkeddata! http://bit.ly/diAw4a "
Richard%20Cyganiak, view%20tweet
"Well, @stefanomaz. Haven't got as excited as I just did from Gridworks since… Cocoon in 1999!!! I'm OLD! Congrats!"
Vincent%20Olivier, view%20tweet
"Getting over excited about using Freebase Gridworks for data cleanup, munging, and maybe, just maybe easy generation... http://ff.im/k73kf "
Cameron%20Neylon, view%20tweet
"Judging by the number of people searching for Freebase Gridworks and landing on my mini-review, it's getting some use. http://bit.ly/cvsSTh "
Anthony%20DeBarros, view%20tweet
- Fadi Maali, Richard%20Cyganiak, and Vassilios Peristeras (DERI)
[https://github.com/newsapps/refine-stats Refine Stats]
- Joe%20Germuska and Christopher%20Groskopf
Anthony%20DeBarros (USA%20Today) - Test%20Drive:%20Freebase%20Gridworks%201.1
Exploring%20Astronomy%20Dataset%20Links%20with%20GridWorks
Paolo%20Ciccarese (Harvard%20Medical%20School) - First%20Steps%20with%20Gridworks%20-%20part%201 (part%202, part3)
Jeff%20Larson (ProPublica) - The%20Rainbow%20Connection:%20How%20We%20Made%20Our%20CDO%20Connections%20Graphic
Tim%20Davies - Sliced%20and%20diced%20aid%20data%20with%20google%20refine