Michi Knows

Google just released a Chart API. It lets you link to a dynamic image which can then be used to generate graphs and charts. The API is amazingly robust. It supports all sorts of charts. It lets you make an image like the one below using a simple URL (see the image URL for an example):

Why is this better than hosted solutions? For 99% of web masters out there, Google’s up-time will beat the pants off of them. There’s really little to no question about the availability of their solution. Not to mention if it’s really an issue, these images could easily be cached by your application after generating them. The biggest draw, of course, is that unlike other hosted solutions, this one doesn’t use proprietary formats (flash), doesn’t introduce security vulnerabilities (for installing some foreign server-side package), and doesn’t add CPU or memory overhead to your application.

Charts like these aren’t using Flash or JavaScript, which means they work in mobile browsers and RSS readers. Since that’s where things are going now, this is Google’s way of getting a small but important piece of the web off the proprietary Flash format. This is especially important given the recent iPhone’s arrival and its lack of Flash support.

“To control and organize the world’s information.” This project is certainly a reflection of their motto.