Google just released a new addition to their API that allows you to really easily generate an image of a graph or chart.

This is probably one of the simplest web services I have ever used because there is no need to deal with establishing a session, or even signing up.

You simply encode your parameters into a specially crafted URL and Google returns a PNG image of your graph that you can embed directly into your <img> tag.

Here is an example:

This image was generated by the following URL:
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p3&chs=500x200&chtt=Sales&chd=t:65,25,10&chl=Americas|Asia|Europe

Notice that the URL to create that image has a few parameters:

• cht=p3 (chart type)
• chs=500x200 (size)
• chtt=Sales (title)
• chd=t:65,25,10 (the data)
• chl=Americas|Asia|Europe (labels)

The functionality is actually quite robust and customizable considering how simple it is. Check out the Google Chart API Developer's Guide for more information.