Google announced that it is including some new information in the Webmaster Tools sitemaps feature. This includes details based on content-type, like stats from Web, Videos, Images and News featured more prominently. “This lets you see how many items of …

Google announced today that it is launching new Webmaster Tools messages to notify webmasters when its algorithms select an external URL instead of one from their website, in duplicate content scenarios. Google defines “cross-domain URL selection” as when the representative …

Google announced that it is going to begin encrypting search queries with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) as the default experience at Google.com when you search logged into your Google account. http://www.google.com will become https://www.google.com. “This is especially important when you’re …

Google is letting Google Analytics users get Webmaster Tools data in their GA accounts, so they can surface Google search data in GA. Several months ago, Google launched a pilot program, but now, the new set of reports is available …

Google announced that it is changing the way it categorizes link data in Webmaster Tools. “As you know, Webmaster Tools lists links pointing to your site in two separate categories: links coming from other sites, and links from within your …

Google has introduced some changes to Webmaster Tools – in particular, handling of URLs with parameters. “URL Parameters helps you control which URLs on your site should be crawled by Googlebot, depending on the parameters that appear in these URLs,” …

Many websites have fallen victims to Google’s emphasis on quality. And over the past few months, one of the targets has been unnatural links on your websites used for enhanced indexing and ranking. Google’s webmaster tools guidelines clearly demonstrates its …

Bing has launched some enhancements to Bing Webmaster Tools in an update called “Honey Badger”. “Today’s redesign offers webmasters a simplified experience that allows them to quickly analyze and identify trends – while also bringing new and unique features to …

Google announced the launch of a limited pilot for SEO reports in Google Analytics, which are based on search queries data from Webmaster Tools. “Webmasters have long been asking for better integration between Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics,” Google …

Google announced that you can now verify your site in Webmaster Tools with a Google Analytics JavaScript snippet.

Google now lets you submit various content types in one sitemap. For example, if you want to submit videos, images, mobile URLs, etc. in the same sitemap, you can do so.

Microsoft made some significant announcements related to Bing at SMX Advanced in Seattle. Later this summer, Bing will offer a redesigned version of Bing Webmaster Tools based on feedback from webmasters. The tools will provide webmasters with a simplified, more intuitive experience that delivers a comprehensive view of how Bing indexes their sites, a representative for Bing tells WebProNews.

 Highlights include:

Google has just started sharing more detailed data for each individual search query in the Top search queries feature in Webmaster Tools.  Google used to just report the average position at which your site’s pages appeared in the search results for a particular query.

Google has quietly gotten rid of PageRank in Webmaster Tools. Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable points to a thread featuring an explanation from Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa.

Google has begun including geographical region information on some search results. The information is used when supplied by webmasters, and appears in the green address line on the results that include it.

Google is going to start letting webmasters know when the software they run on their site is outdated. Through Webmater Tools, Google will begin alerting users of new versions of software when they are released.

Google has launched a couple of new Labs features for Webmaster Tools. One is "malware details" and the other is "fetch as googlebot."

Google is providing snippets of code from pages it considers malware, in order to help webmasters eliminate the malware on their sites quickly.

Google has made some changes to the way Webmaster Tools users verify their websites.

Before, the user’s verification meta tag was based (partially) on the email address of their Google account, which meant that if they changed the email address in their account settings, their meta tags would also change, and they’d become unverified for any sites that used the old tag. Google has made a new version of the verification meta tag, which is unrelated to the email address to prevent this from happening.

Google has added a new way for webmasters to tell it which parameters in URLS, they wish to be ignored. They have added a new feature to Google Webmaster Tools called simply, "Parameter Handling." Google provides the following explanation with the feature:

Google has released an update to Webmaster Tools, with the code name "Summer Shine." The update comes with several new features.

The first new feature is that the site selector now lists all verified sites that the user owns. It also allows the user to search as they type.

Google has come up with another nice webmaster tool.

Most people think the Webmaster Tools programs as a bit like black holes. You send in a question, concern or idea and nothing ever happens…it just sort of disappears.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, the truth is light years away from this thinking.

Witness Live’s revised and expanded WMT program.