Once you've got your system going, you can't just sit on your laurels, you need to keep making it more and more enticing for users to keep heading back to you. Sure, some folks just go for making the site prettier, but nothing beats added content or functionality. Some go further than others, but even the little things can be a nicety. Here's our list of the best upgrades of 2007.
FanNation.com - Sports Illustrated picked up the popular sporting network in February of the this year, and was "relaunched" by late April. They changed colors, changed up the logo a bit, and integrated SI's photo galleries, but otherwise, why mess with success? If you bought it for a reason, you might as well leave it be as much as possible.
GMail - Maybe the "Beta" that sill lingers on this app after three years finally makes sense! We have gotten a ton of upgrades this year such as more storage space and colorful tags. It seems you can't log in lately without some sort of upgrade to this service, and who knows where they're going to take it next. I, for one, can't wait to see. (though I don't really need a press release for each and every one of them...)
RememberTheMilk.com - It seems like such a simple idea to give you the ability to manage task lists, but RememberTheMilk just keeps expanding and expanding. Integrating with Google and Twitter, working on your iPhone and iPod Touch, it's becoming a priceless assistant to your everyday life. You wonder what the heck they could add next.
SiteMeter.com - Feeling the heat of Google Analytics, SiteMeter needed to update, and update it did. Much cleaner, easier to navigate, it was just what the traffic meter needed. Sometimes competition is good just for the policy of getting you out of your complacency.
Vimeo.com - Sometimes it's hard to say why one site catches on over another. Vimeo sure seems to try, and with their various levels of privacy, you'd think they might catch on a bit more, but it just never does. On their 5th iteration, you'd hope something would finally pay off for them, but, at this point, it's probably like a new search engine trying to compete with Google. Either way, it's a valiant attempt and worthy of a mention.
Honorable Mention - US! Did you all forget we relaunched with a new design this year?
So which upgrades did you see that you liked this year?