MUNICH, GERMANY – SEPTEMBER 06: In this photo illustration Google’s Chrome, Google Inc.’s new web. … [+]
Interruptions are troublesome. In fact, switching between different enterprise applications and data services is—according to the Harvard Business Review—something the average user does on average 1,200 times a day. That’s almost four hours a week, which is a free afternoon by anyone’s measure.
Even for those of us who try to work primarily in a single browser environment, it’s more than likely that a user uses Twitter/X, LinkedIn, a calendar, an email inbox, maybe WhatsApp, and of course a spreadsheet and word processor. . There is always a need to move and “switch” between applications because we need different services from different application specializations. All of this is fine for many use cases, but for knowledge workers looking for data intelligence, data analytics, and data management functions to be more available in a secure way, it’s less than ideal at best.
Without a so-called “single source of truth” (that phrase that tech vendors like to use when they want to sell us orchestration, automation, and centralization technologies), the new breed of modern data users often have to let their applications run. in Google Chrome (other browsers are also available, but Chrome has about two-thirds of the market) to find relevant data distributed across systems. These inefficiencies slow decision-making, introduce errors, and delay the time to evaluate data and AI initiatives.
Contextual data discovery
Data intelligence platform company Alatipon has worked to address these issues with its release of Alation Anywhere for Google Chrome, a software service designed to simplify the discovery of contextual data and enable users to act on data intelligence within Chrome.
This extension allows users to search, preview and retrieve critical metadata from Alation without leaving their browser. It’s all about the ability to get trusted and controlled data at the point of need for real-time enterprise decision-making. and expedited time to rate. The add-on is the latest addition to Alation Anywhere, which integrates data intelligence into Slack, Microsoft Teams, Excel, and Google Sheets.
“Organizations today are overwhelmed by the flow of data from countless sources, creating unprecedented complexity in managing their data environments,” said Diby Malakar, VP of product management at Alation. “The Alation Anywhere extension for Google Chrome directly addresses this challenge by delivering trusted and controlled data directly in the user’s browser. It empowers teams to instantly find, understand and act on data – without disrupting their workflow. This does not it’s simply a productivity tool—it’s a critical asset that accelerates decision-making, reduces errors, and delivers meaningful business results in today’s decentralized, data-driven world.”
Creating collaborative data cultures
Alation Anywhere integrates data intelligence applications that many of us use as everyday tools. The extension displays data intelligence—such as business term definitions, metadata previews, and database details—directly in the browser, eliminating the need to leave Chrome. As an illustrative working example, knowledge workers often rely on applications such as Snowflake’s Snowsight and Power BI. With the new extension, users gain a side-by-side view of data assets and related metadata from Alation, which the company suggests creates a more collaborative data culture across the enterprise.
Workers can have teams instantly discover trusted data and business intelligence assets using natural language search. This democratizes access to data across the organization, allowing users to quickly find relevant data assets without specialized knowledge. The plugin increases productivity by providing the right data at the point of need, enabling faster and more informed decision-making.
“The extension increases productivity by providing automated, side-by-side previews of data assets in Snowflake Snowsight and Power BI dashboards along with Alation metadata. For example, data teams can access context—such as data quality flags and descriptions about a data asset—directly within Snowsight and Power BI. This comprehensive view allows users to explore contextual metadata, such as schemas, tables, and BI objects, all without leaving Chrome. The extension supports better decision-making by streamlining workflows, improving data accuracy, reducing errors and ensuring teams rely on trusted and governed data,” said Alation’s Malakar.
Users can also search for and interpret standardized organizational terms directly within Chrome. For example, an analyst working on a report or PowerPoint can find clarity on organizational terms through the Alation dictionary.
Hammering Out Applications
The trends emerging here align closely with broader efforts to provide users with automation and intelligence services built around real workplace workflows, ie. it’s not so much the case that knowledge workers need to craft their application use cases into a form that fits the jobs. they need to perform, it’s more a case of the application functions themselves bending (in this case stretching) to the specific user base customization requirements.
We’ll likely see more of these trends moving forward, which could be a welcome development… at least until the next big thing has to close and we need even more expansions and additions, but at least we know the drill now ie. too much change makes the brain wobble.