I was trying to find a new way to display site hits/site statistics from our sites (Aller), in a new way. I needed something that could be updated on the fly and circulated throughout the different editing offices we have here. Why? Well, our sites has over 7 million hits a day, and 20 times as much requests, and the offices needed something to show for, all time highs, top articles and so on.
After some heavy research, including the "make-it-from-scratch" attitude, I stumbled over PHP/SWF Charts!
PHP/SWF Charts is a simple, yet powerful PHP tool to create attractive web charts and graphs from dynamic data. Directly from the site, it could not be pinpointed better. After the implementation of this tool, I saved myself from several hours of implementing a tool that would cost more than it would do good. Furthermore, the statistics made it easier for each editing office to set goals and to be more aware of the effects each article has on the traffic.