Google public data explorer 

 The  Google Public Data Explorer  just went up and it is worth a look. They have collected a number of large datasets and created a set of visualization tools to explore the data. Probably most interesting is the ability to show how the data changes over time using animation. This will be familiar to you if you have seen any of Hans Rosling's  TED talks . 

 While it is fun to play around with the data, it can be a bit overwhelming. Content requires curation. One that I found interesting was the World Bank data on net migration: 

    

 It's hard to get the colors/sizes quite right since size measures just the magnitude (positive or negative) and the colors range from red (people coming) to blue (people going). This sort of feels like the natural extension of programs like SPSS to the web.