If you have been on Google Analytics recently, you may have noticed a link in the top right labelled 'New Version'. Clicking this will take you to the Beta (or test) version of the new Google Analytics package. It uses all the same data as the current version, but contains some interesting new features.

• Upgraded dashboard with new, more customisable widgets. You can ensure the information most important to you is right on the home page. They can be configured as a single number (like a bounce rate), a pie chart, which is great for showing information like country source or browser type, line chart, best for showing changes over time or a table if you prefer to see the raw numbers.
  
  Each of these types can be set to show you only the information you are interested in by applying additional filters, and will reflect changes made to the main date selector.
• Upgraded and enhanced intelligence section, right next to the reports. This will show you significant changes very quickly. For instance, if the traffic drops 10%, or bounce rate increases by 5% you can see an alert here. There are loads of automatic alerts already configured, or you can create your own custom alerts.
• Multi channel funnels are an upgrade from the old sales conversion funnels. It's not uncommon for a visitor to find your site one way - like paid advertising - go away, then find your site again using a brand name search. The multi channel funnel shows all these interactions (not just the last one) so you can properly assign marketing costs.
• Improved custom reports are now available. As well as an all new report builder, there are additional metrics not seen before, such as social media actions, and a custom mobile section to report on all visits from mobile devices. This was possible before, but usually involved analysing the specific browsers used manually, which could be time consuming and difficult.
• For bigger companies, or just smaller ones with multiple Adwords accounts, there is also a much improved linking system between Adwords and Analytics. Previously, your Analytics could only link to one Adwords account at a time, but it can now be linked to multiple ones simultaneously. 
• Better geographical reporting is now available. Over 170 countries now show visitor location information down to a more local area - split into England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the UK so far. To get to this, in the geographical reporting, click on a country name to drill down further.
• With Google now using site loading speed as one factor in ranking your site, its really useful to have a speed reporting tool included. It report how fast each page is loading, allowing you to make improvements that may not only improve your visitor experience, but could also improve your visibility in Google Search.

The new style of Analytics can take some getting used to if you have been using the current version for a while, but promises to give a better overall experience for site owners, web marketing specialists and search engine optimisers.