SiteMeter gets a facelift - and a few other nips and tucks too

Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

SiteMeter gets a facelift - and a few other nips and tucks too

by Brad Linder Sep 14th 2008

Web analytics company SiteMeter has rolled out a major update to its free and premium web stats tracking service. The new version of SiteMeter is full of new charts and graphs that let you see how a web site is performing at a glance. The update is also supposed to do a better job of accurately tracking unique visits and page views.

One of the biggest changes for web publishers is that you no longer need a separate login for each web page you maintain. You can bring all of your accounts together under a single username and password. You can also decide whether to offer visitors full, partial, or no access to your statistics.

Some reports appear to have been retired, like the traffic prediction report. But others have been added or expanded. For example, you can now see how your site stacks up against other web sites in a given category using SiteMeter. And while users used to be able to see visits and page views by day, week, month, or year, you can now select a custom time period to view.

Overall, the new SiteMeter looks a lot prettier and offers you many new ways to analyze web site traffic. Will that be enough to convince people to choose SiteMeter over other free services like Google Analytics? It doesn't really matter. There's nothing preventing you from using both services simultaneously. Many web publishers do.

Update: In response to the overwhelmingly negative reception this redesign has received, Sitemeter is rolling back its service to the old version. No word on how much time and money they've spent on the "upgrade." While the new service certainly offers more features than the old version, reports take longer to load, they're not as simple to read as the old versions, and most importantly, a large number of Sitemeter users had complaints.

Tags: google-analytics, sitemeter, statistics, web-analytics

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Marco said 12:13PM on 9-14-2008

Ah... a fast alternative to Sitemeter is:

AddFreeStats.com

Just like Sitemeter (before)...

Just dropped SiteMeter's code from my site...

mvp said 12:20PM on 9-14-2008

Sites down...

Gustavo Leig said 12:20PM on 9-14-2008

I used to love sitemeter, not anymore...

All the simplicity, handy reports that appear fast are gone.

I hate this flashy look. Sad weekend for my stats.

Droping their code from my website.

kaushik said 12:20PM on 9-14-2008

I hate it. Where is my summary page? And why do they have to use flash for godsake?? Not to mention it's slow as hell. I think I will migrate to stat counter.

Marco said 12:20PM on 9-14-2008

I used Sitemeter because it was really plain simple. Now, it’s loading.. and loading... and loading and FLASH and all this stupid stuff is required. Well, g’bye Sitemeter...

Claudia said 4:36PM on 9-14-2008

Wow! That was fast. I was gonna start searching for an alternative to Sitemeter.

Lubos Motl said 4:38PM on 9-14-2008

SiteMeter has decided to return to the old website immediately: rollback! See

http://motls.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-sitemeter-is-much-less-usable-than.html

Walter said 6:15PM on 9-14-2008

Goodby Sitemeter!

Ellen Meister said 6:15PM on 9-14-2008

The new sitemeter is a disaster. I'm canceling my premium subscription.

Roy said 6:15PM on 9-14-2008

They really messed up. What used to be so simple is now so complicated. It didn't recognize my old sign in, so I had to create a new one. Even then, it was very slow loading. Will check it out in 2 more days but I am very disappointed so far. It was perfect before. If it still not working better in 2 days it's coming off my site.

Roy said 12:16AM on 9-15-2008

Wow! One of the few companies that actually listened to the people. They are going back to the perfect old way. Congratulations, sitemeter, I have a new respect for your people. Roy

Jay Smooth said 6:16PM on 9-14-2008

This is a "facelift" only in the most hideous Michael Jackson sense of the word. The upgrade is a disgrace and a disaster, and I'm kind of amazed that your review did not identify it as such.

Steve Coulson said 6:16PM on 9-14-2008

Just check the comment on Twitter by using the search engine over the last 24 hours, and I think you'll begin to realize just how unpopular this upgrade is. I think Sitemeter just made a huge business mistake.

amit said 6:16PM on 9-14-2008

They are going for a rollback

http://weblog.sitemeter.com/2008/09/14/sitemeter-rollback/

epiac1216 said 12:16AM on 9-15-2008

It was such a dumb decision, that Sitemeter's site was rolled back to their previous version. I was also waiting to making the change, but the site was not working.

Now I see that my ole Sitemeter is back. I hope the dev guys learned their lesson. Let the customer know what they like or don't like before you make a decision. Remember the coke incident?

My Awesome Blog said 12:16AM on 9-15-2008

SiteMeter.... You're FIRED!

Stuart Halliday said 11:00AM on 9-15-2008

Of course they did check with their customers via some sort of Gamma version that their customers did like the new version?

No? Oh what a surprise.

Some CEO head will no doubt roll...

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