SiteMaps Now a Common Standard

Google, Yahoo & Microsoft have announced an effort to provide a commonly accepted standard for search engine inclusion via sitemaps.

The official site for the protocol can be found at www.sitemaps.org

Google started the ball rolling last year with it's announcment of the first sitemap protocol - officially version 0.84. This latest version is .90 and is supported by all the main search engines.

For those of you wondering about the changes, there are none. The versioning change just reflects the fact that it's no longer a Google-only protocol.

So, the bottom line is, that Google sitemap you have made is now just a search engine sitemap and will work with MSN and Yahoo, as well. It's in the Commons, so any other search engine that wants to use it can, and is encouraged to do so.

Ian

1 comment:

Hong Xiaowan said...: http://www.hongxiaowan.com
Sitebases, the next protocol after Sitemaps
It can save the time and press for the search engine, also for the websites.
It can bring new search engine that named Search Engine 2.0 .
Using Sitebases protocol, will save 95% bandwidth above. It is another sample for long tail theory.
In this protocol, I suggested that all search engine can share their Big Sitebases each other, so the webmaster just need to submit their Sitebases to one Search Engine.
And I suggested that all search engines can open their search API for free and unlimited using.

Please visit: http://www.sitebases.org; 5:43 AM