I am just starting a new ASP.NET application. Is it preferable for me to use the MS Charting controls for .NET, as that's already the domain I am using, or is there a real reason to look at other tools such as Google Charts?
Also, I can't seem to find any online/live examples of the MS Charting component online, which makes it a bit difficult to evaluate...
Here's a good tutorial on Microsoft's .NET Chart Control. http://dotnetslackers.com/articles/aspnet/microsoft-chart-with-asp-net-35-part1.aspx
While it's good for simple charts, you're better off with a 3rd party control like Telerik's RadCharts for better customizablity & features
You should evaluate SVG+jSON as well. Before you evaluate, you should estimate the load on your web site. Server side charting API's provide very good functionality, but do comsume CPU cycles.If you are expecting a lot of traffic for those pages, you are better off with SVG+jSON for charting. There are some good jQuery plugins which can do that for you
I am doing a lot of charts and my experience is that you get more and more requirements on the charts and then it is good to have a product that can meet the new requirements so I have used Software FX Chart FX http://www.softwarefx.com/
This is a mature product (like Dundas) and so far I have succeded to create what I want. The test I did with MS Chart worked good and was easy to create the charts but I feel the API is better for Chart FX. http://demo.softwarefx.com/chartfx/aspnet/ajaxsamples/