Tech Review

Sitemeter, the most popular web stat service, used by Truth laid bear, may have jumped the shark.

Sitemeter's attractiveness was/is its simplicity-hits per day, month, year and a handy world map- and its universality.

Following the temptation not to leave well-enough alone, an idea perfected by Microsoft, this weekend Sitemeter unveiled an "upgrade" to its service.

When I first used the new, improved Sitemeter, I was dismayed that I had to log on to see the stats whereas before, it went strait to the stats. Add to this annoyance much slower performance, and you have what happened the next day, a return to the original format loved by millions.

Sitemeter was attempting to be a comprehensive web analysis tool like Google analytics.

Sitemeter should find a way to provide that service while not losing its simplicity and universality.

Still no hits from Cuba.

Alternatives to Sitemeter:

1. Another, less popular hit, counter. Gostats, for example.

2. Blog software, B2evolution, tells me what search terms find Asymmetric and the sites whose links to Asymmetric lead surfers to it, but only a comparison to other B2evolution sites would be valid.

3. Webhost. My host, Bluehost, keeps stats, but again, they're not useful for inter-site comparison.

4. Alexa. It doesn't tell you how many hits a particular web site has or their origination, but does give your site a ranking.

5. The aforementioned Google Analytics.