Computer-assisted reporting whiz Matt Wynn from the Arizona Republic has published an awesome list of eight ways to get interactive data on your site.
Matt has essentially reviewed various vendors that offer embeddable databases (such as Caspio and Zoho), as well as gone over some of the more hands-on options, such as directly using programming languages and their frameworks.
I’ll add my two cents to Matt’s post: One of the best way to truly grow your site and do innovative (and revenue-gaining) work is to hire some smart, dedicated developers for your site. Vendors, though useful for certain projects, are only going to get your site so far. Give those developers the tools they need: time, training, exposure to different departments, cover fire and a reliable server with which to work that isn’t under choking restrictions. Then, you’ll be cooking with gas.
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The easiest way to add dynamic database-driven content to a website is to use a Database-as-a-Service like http://www.HostedDatabase.com which was launched in 1999. It is compatible with all hosting platforms because the interface is just plain HTML.
They also sponsor a cool site called http://www.OpenDatabase.info which is entirely free to use; where you can post any sort of public data or search through their data store for data. There is a way to add an OpenDatabase search box on your website. This is sort of like a search engine for data.