The Other McCain sums up the new Sitemeter:
Just got my first look at the new format for SiteMeter statistics. It sucks, big-time.
Speaking as a professional game and software designer, all I can say is that the new Sitemeter sucks more badly than nearly any software “improvement” I have ever seen. You actually get less functionality and less information from the initial page than you got before. It’s so utterly horrible; I can’t even imagine bothering to check on my statistics there. The only reason I won’t migrate immediately is that it’s so bad, they’ll surely revert or provide a classic version as soon as their executives see how their traffic has dropped off a cliff.
It’s amazing how many companies blindly go ahead and break things that were previously functional. This is why I’m always an advocate of giving the user optional improvements. If it’s genuinely better, most people will migrate and you can let the transition take place naturally. If you feel the need to throw out the old and cram the new down your user’s throats, chances are that your basic design sucks.