Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Agree on Sitemap Standard
Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, the three largest internet search companies have agreed on a standard system for submitting web pages to be indexed by their respective web spiders. Web publishers no longer have to optimize three different files for their sites to be indexed by each service.
Google pioneered the Sitemaps standard in 2005, and kicks off the partnership with a new version number: Sitemaps 0.9. Sitemaps are XML files that list information about each URL on a website, letting autonomous software programs called spiders better index each page. Publishers who already use Google sitemaps don’t need to make any changes. Their sites will be automatically indexed by Yahoo and Microsoft.
“Sitemaps helps webmasters surface content that is typically difficult for crawlers to discover, leading to a more comprehensive search experience for users,” said Tim Mayer, Yahoo Search’s senior director of product management in a statement.
The Sitemaps standard is being released under a Creative Commons license, so other parties can use it as well. The three collaborators will be maintaining and developing the standard together and release joint announcements on sitemaps.org, hosted by Yahoo Small Business.
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