March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, bought a software program called Trendalyzer that lets users display information using moving graphics.

Google said it bought the program from Gapminder Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Stockholm. The team that created Trendalyzer has joined Google, the Mountain View, California-based company said yesterday on its Web log.

The program is designed to display information such as population growth and income distribution on animated charts or maps to show trends over time. Google said it aims to make statistics available to a broader audience. Terms of the purchase weren't disclosed.

``Gapminder strives to make information more useful, and Trendalyzer will improve any function or application in which data might be better visualized,'' Google said.

Shares of Google fell $5.34 to $440.85 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have fallen 4.3 percent this year.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Thaw in San Francisco at jthaw@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 17, 2007 16:18 EDT