WebProNews

Google Sitemaps is Google's new service that allows webmasters to inform Google of updates and alterations made to a site via a segement of XML code placed upon the webserver.

The XML code act as an RSS feed, communicating with Google about site modifications so that Google can recrawl the necessary sections. This allows Google's search index to remain up to date, provided people actually take advantage of the sitemap service.

Becuase Google released the sitemap generation tool as an open source utility (written in Python), a number of tools and utilities have been released to assist users in their sitemap endeavors. As reported by Philipp Lenssen of Google Blogoscoped, these tools were developed by third party developers, which Google was happy to list .

Google also provides a disclaimer saying they have not tested these plug-ins and for users to contact the developer if anything goes awry. Currently, the plug-ins and tools include Programs/Code Snippets, Downloadable Tools & CMS Plugins, and Online Generators. There are also discussion lists and a sitemaps validator page. Please visit the Google Sitemaps plug-in page in order to download tools of interest.

Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.