Thanks for coming, reporters. We are gathered here today to say goodbye to Fusion Tables, which enabled many a journalist to produce surprisingly advanced infographics with little training.
Sadly, Google announced Fusion Tables was going to sleep with the fishes last year. This month, they released a tool for saving your graphics before they turn to dust.
I’ve talked before about saving your projects before they disappear, which is sadly far more common than anyone would like to think.
Luckily, the Fusion Tables Archive Tool is super easy to use. You just sign in with your Google account and export them all (data and visualizations separate) to a new Google Drive folder called ft-archive. I would go ahead and do it now before your maps turn to pumpkins on December 3rd.
P.S. Mike Reilley of the Journalist’s Toolbox put together a list of mapping tools that you may want to check for replacements.) Back up your projects, reporters!