Google, Yahoo, MSN Debut Sitemaps.org
There are certain partnerships and collaborations that inspire double takes: Microsoft and Apple developing a working Windows platform for Macs and deep-fried Coca-Cola come to mind. Well, there’s another log you can add to the fire and it comes in the form of an SEO tool, courtesy of search industry giants Google, MSN, and Yahoo.
>>>> Watch our exclusive video interview with Vanessa Fox of Google and Tim Mayer of Yahoo.
The collaboration I’m referring to is the launch of Sitemaps.org, a webmaster protocol that is attempting to introduce a web standard for these documents. Essentially, the program is a group acceptance of the Sitemaps service introduced by Google. Yahoo and MSN jumping on board in such a vocal manner emphasizes this. In fact, the three engines unifying like this the most important aspect of Sitemaps launch.
I first learned about this unification at the 2006 Las Vegas PubCon, thanks to a video interview with Googleb’s Vanessa Fox and Yahoo’s Tim Mayer. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the room and discovered these were my interview subjects. To say I was expecting big news is an understatement and I was not disappointed.
This unified Sitemaps launch functions much like Google’s does. The site’s introductory paragraph says as much:
Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. In its simplest form, a Sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with additional metadata about each URL (when it was last updated, how often it usually changes, and how important it is, relative to other URLs in the site) so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site.
The protocol page has the necessary information for creating a functional Sitemap and in true Google and Yahoo fashion; there is a robust FAQ page to answer questions for things like submitting the file when developed.
The importance of this “partnership” can’t be understated. A quote from the Live Search blog emphasizes the significance of this collaboration:
So, why are we excited to work on this? Because by agreeing on a standard, we can provide site owners with one simple way to share information with every search engine. You just publish a sitemap, and every engine is instantly able to read and use the data to more effectively index your site.
Chris Richardson
Staff Writer | WebProNews
It all sounds like something that’s long overdue. But of course my next question has to be: “Have the coolaborators in the Sitemapping standardizations already determined how to extort money for this and will it be a covert operation?” Besides the obvious benefits to the end-user most often moves like this seek to further a hidden agenda. I’m not saying this is the case, I like the idea. I’m only saying we should be watchful! It’s realistic to suggest that the result will be a financial savings for the developers in furthering their interests on the web. If they improve their bottom line this way, we all benefit and that should be encouraged.
“Yahoo and Google working together”..?? Yikes!.. and Wow!..
It’s about time a couple of the big guys got together in something good… All the big guys ever do is fight with big guy software glitches.. with the user in the middle in the crossfire of their insanity insatiable money-sucking wars… I was thinking it’s time to send my high powered barrage of letters, to effectively push China into creating their own communications I-Net “Chinet”, so to establish this kind of fairness in our parts of the world.. and to rock the bug guy’s boat a little.. to force the Money to wake up to a little humanity… But Hey!.. maybe a few of the kids actually found they can play nice, after they stop playing mean…
Or maybe they’ve realized that our ways are actually driving all Life toward extinction.. and they just want to make a little more money while they can…
Hey China.. howzabout implementing another worldwide Internet “Chinet”.. so to give the almighty lifeless monsters a little competition.. and make the rest of ‘em play nice too… And just maybe that ploy would stop the inevitable “pay per email” scenario, which is to take place in seven years.. as a mindless useless religious political 13-Collonies Salem-style punishment ploy, to regulate Intranet bullying and policing.. to push humanity deeper into the bottle in Democracy’s wasteland of the walking dead…
Strange collaboration. I seem to recall that Yahoo knuckled under to Fed pressure to expose their users Email addys and URLs to “government” scrutiny, while Google told them to take a flying leap into the nearest ocean. What happens now with this “let’s do something together?”
I have been using Google sitemaps for the past year and it is great. I was able to find the Yahoo Sitemaps address https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com but does anyone know where to set up sitemaps for MSN?
JB
As far as Yahoo and Google working together, I sure hope so. This is a necessity! Too much work to have Yahoo site and search engine, Google Adwords, Google Adsense, and then AOL and MSN fit in here somewhere as well. Just make this ALL work together in synergy!
Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m sure I read somewhere that Yahoo etc favoured ROR site maps and after looking at their more involved format than Google site maps, I created ROR for Fabulous Photo Gifts.
Does this mean Yahoo and others are ditching the ROR or will it still help to have both sitemap and ROR .xml for your site?
I’m not trying to jump the queue by having both but I figured that anything you can do to attract the attention of the Search Engines was worth a go and couldn’t do any harm.
I opened a Yahoo account and submitted both our URL and the ROR document that way.
JC