In this blog post, I want to summarize the new releases from the Google tools, that we use daily in datadice. Therefore I want to give an overview of the new features of BigQuery, Dataform, Looker Studio, Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. Furthermore, I will focus on the releases that I consider to be the most important ones and I will also name some other changes that were made.
If you want to take a closer look, here you can find the Release Notes from BigQuery, Dataform, Looker Studio, Google Analytics & Google Tag Manager.
BigQuery
Short query optimised mode
An interesting new feature, where some more investigation time and hands-on experience is needed, but I can give you already the idea behind the short query optimised mode.
This is a new mode you can use when you execute a query in BigQuery. In the SQL Editor you can select it here:
When you have a query which is not reading and transforming a lot of data, this mode is quicker in executing the query and showing the result. When the query is “small enough”, BigQuery does not create a job.
If the query is too big, BigQuery creates a job for it. So far there is no information from Google what is small and what is big.
This mode can be an interesting functionality, when you need quick updates on small chunks of data. A use case could be, to model last incoming real-time data from the last X seconds and add them to the final table.
Here a quick visualization of these 2 modes:
New JSON function
A really nice new feature, when you are handling with a lot of JSON data in BigQuery and especially if you have changing keys in the data.
With the function “JSON_KEYS” you can get all keys of the JSON value.
Let us start with an easy example:
- It shows you, that this JSON has an “a” key.
- It does not show the “b” key, because the second parameter defines just the first level keys are part of the result
There is a third parameter available, which has 3 possible values with the following functionalities:
- strict: ignore keys which are inside an array
- lax: show keys which are inside a non-consecutively nested array
- lax_recursive: show all keys
Now I want you to show you an example where this function can be really helpful:
In this case, the key is the abbreviation of the persons name. Due to that this key is changing drastically and with that approach, I can use the keys in the result to get then the final name of the person in the JSON.
More detailed information can be found here.
New possibilities in ARRAY and STRUCT data
An easy one but could be an important one.
If a column is an array or struct data type, it can be used in a GROUP BY and SELECT DISTINCT statement now.
Fun Fact: The only two remaining data types you can not use in GROUP BY and SELECT DISTINCT statements are:
- GEOGRAPHY
- JSON
ML changes
As usual there are also some ML changes I want to mention:
- Define remote models with the Anthropic Claude model in Vertex AI
- Do anomaly detection with multivariate time series models (ARIMA_PLUS_XREG)
Dataform
New Cloud EKM protection
Now it is even possible to use keys from an External Key Manager. This Key Manager need to be partnered with Google (currently Fortanix, Futurex, Thales and Virtru). An up to date list can be found here.
When you use this approach, the keys are created and managed in the partner service but they are linked and can be used in Dataform then.More information can be found here.
Looker Studio
New formatting for Bin calculated field type
In our blog post about the updates of June, we described the new bin calculated fields in Looker Studio. This field got a new update. You can now select three different formats in the “Bin field format”, which changes the appearance of the numeric tiers. The three options are:
- Interval “[x,y)”: Range including x and up to but not including y
- Integer “x to y”: showing discrete integer values
- Relational “>= x and < y”: showing continuous numbers
Let us take a look at the same example from the June blog post with the different selected formats:
New list control sorting
It’s a small but nice update. In drop-down list and fix-sized list filters, you can now sort the filter values by any metric of the datasource and not just by the selected fields.
Google Analytics
Changed session_start firing
Google Analytics 4 had trouble with the reliability of the session_start event firing. Google made the following change now:
- When your property is linked to the Google Ad Manager and you use the send_pay_view=false configuration, the firing of the session_start event is improved
The time will tell if there will be an improvement in the session data.
Deep links recommendation
Just a quick side info:
When you are tracking an app, Google Analytics will observe your deep links over time. If some of these links are broken, a recommendation is shown with further information and possibilities to fix the issue to increase conversions and engagement.
Google Tag Manager
New Consent setting
An update that is not active for me so far. Maybe it depends on the region.
In your Google Tag Settings (Home >Tab “Google Tags” > Click on the desired tag) it is now possible to override the consent mode. This means you can override the consent settings from your website code and set the consent by default for the selected regions to be denied.
To see this option, you need to choose in the menu “Manage default consent settings for data collection” the option “No. Do not automatically mark this data as consented
More detailed information can be found here.
Upcoming datadice blog posts for this month
- Y42 V3 Introduction - Coming Soon
Further Links
This post is part of the Google Data Analytics series from datadice and explains to you every month the newest features in BigQuery, Data Studio, Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.
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