Chapter 39: Google Chart
Step 1: What Exactly is Google Charts?
Google Charts is a free, web-based charting service provided by Google that lets you create interactive, animated, publication-quality charts using only HTML + JavaScript.
Think of it like:
- Microsoft Excel charts or Google Sheets charts but embedded directly into any web page (your blog, dashboard, school project, company report) with zero server-side code needed from your side.
Key points that make Google Charts special (2026 reality):
- Completely free — no limits for most use cases
- Very easy — you write ~15–30 lines of JavaScript and the chart appears
- Highly interactive — hover tooltips, zoom, click events, legend toggle, animation on load
- Responsive — automatically adjusts to mobile/tablet/desktop
- Very wide chart types — 30+ types (bar, line, pie, geo map, scatter, candlestick, org chart, gauge, treemap, sankey, word cloud, timeline, calendar, etc.)
- Beautiful default styling — looks clean and professional without any CSS work
- No library download — everything loads from Google’s servers (CDN)
- Works offline after first load (cached by browser)
Official page (still active): https://developers.google.com/chart
Step 2: Why Do People Still Use Google Charts in 2026?
- Zero setup — just add one <script> tag → no npm install, no bundler needed
- Very fast loading — Google CDN is one of the fastest in the world
- Great for static / simple sites — blogs, school projects, personal portfolios, internal reports
- Geo & map charts are excellent and simple (world/country/city level data)
- Very good accessibility — screen-reader friendly tooltips & legends
- No maintenance — Google keeps it updated and secure
- Huge number of examples — thousands of ready-to-copy charts
Common places you still see Google Charts today:
- Educational websites & blogs
- Government / NGO reports
- Small business dashboards
- News articles with stats
- Academic papers & presentations
- Internal company wikis
Step 3: Your First Google Charts Example – Copy-Paste & Run (30 Seconds)
Create a file called google-charts-hello.html and paste this:
HTML
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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <title>My First Google Charts Example</title> <!-- Load Google Charts loader --> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.gstatic.com/charts/loader.js"></script> <style> body { margin: 0; padding: 40px; background: #f8f9fa; font-family: Arial; text-align: center; } h1 { color: #4285f4; } #chart_div { width: 90%; max-width: 1000px; height: 600px; margin: 40px auto; } </style> </head> <body> <h1>My First Google Charts – IPL 2025 Run Scorers</h1> <div id="chart_div"></div> <script type="text/javascript"> // 1. Load the Visualization API and the corechart package google.charts.load('current', {'packages':['corechart', 'bar']}); // 2. Set a callback to run when the API is loaded google.charts.setOnLoadCallback(drawChart); function drawChart() { // 3. Create the data table var data = google.visualization.arrayToDataTable([ ['Player', 'IPL 2025 Runs', 'IPL 2024 Runs'], ['Virat Kohli', 741, 892], ['Suryakumar Yadav', 682, 745], ['Travis Head', 658, 712], ['KL Rahul', 612, 689], ['Jos Buttler', 589, 678] ]); // 4. Set chart options var options = { chart: { title: 'Top 5 Run Scorers – IPL 2024 vs 2025', subtitle: 'Total Runs Comparison' }, bars: 'vertical', // or 'horizontal' height: 600, colors: ['#4285f4', '#34a853'], legend: { position: 'top' }, hAxis: { title: 'Player', textStyle: { fontSize: 14 } }, vAxis: { title: 'Total Runs', minValue: 0 }, animation: { duration: 1200, easing: 'out' } }; // 5. Instantiate and draw the chart var chart = new google.charts.Bar(document.getElementById('chart_div')); chart.draw(data, google.charts.Bar.convertOptions(options)); } </script> </body> </html> |
Open this file in your browser — you should see a beautiful, animated grouped bar chart!
What you can do with it:
- Hover over bars → see exact runs + nice tooltip
- Resize window → chart auto-adjusts
- Click legend → hide/show series
- Animation on load → bars grow smoothly
Step 4: Quick Summary Table (Keep This Handy!)
| Chart Type | Best For | Example Data in 2026 | Code Starter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bar / Column | Comparisons, rankings | IPL run scorers, product sales | Bar chart |
| Line / Area | Time series, trends | Daily UPI transactions, stock prices | Line chart |
| Pie / Donut | Part-to-whole, percentages | Budget breakdown, market share | Pie chart |
| Geo / Map | Geographical data | COVID cases by state, election results | GeoChart |
| Scatter / Bubble | Correlation, clusters | Height vs weight, sales vs profit | ScatterChart |
| Candlestick / OHLC | Financial data | Stock price movements | CandlestickChart |
| Org Chart | Hierarchies | Company structure, family tree | OrgChart |
Final Teacher Words (February 2026 Reality)
Google Charts = Google’s free, simple, interactive charting service that runs entirely in the browser with just a <script> tag and a few lines of JavaScript.
- Start with bar/line/pie → look professional immediately
- Add interactivity → hover, zoom, legend toggle — users love it
- Need maps, org charts, candlestick? → Google Charts has them ready
- Want it in React/Vue/Angular? → Use Google Charts React wrapper or just load the script
In Hyderabad 2026 Google Charts is still everywhere:
- School & college projects
- Blog posts with stats
- Small business reports
- News articles
- Personal portfolios
Got the big picture now? 🔥
Questions?
- Want a live updating UPI transaction line chart?
- Full India state-wise population GeoChart example?
- How to use Google Charts in React?
- Difference Google Charts vs Chart.js vs Plotly.js?
Just tell me — next class is ready! 🚀
