I ask because we are increasingly needing to get view counts per day, not just total. I can easily add a hook_nodeapi('view') to count from today, but wanted to get historical counts as well.
Another idea: in case you're already using Google Analytics, and need a cache-proof solution, there's also the Google Analytics API module (http://drupal.org/project/google_analytics_api), which allows you to access Analytics data remotely. Pro: it's off-loaded from your own server. Contra: it's not real-time.
The Google Analytics Counter module (http://drupal.org/project/google_analytics_counter) is based on this API and might already nearly do what you need.
-- Stefan Kudwien Drupal Consulting
