New : News feeds and sitemaps
2 new services from the MJB Data workshop : Google sitemaps and RSS news feeds.
Google has a mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible". At MJB Data we have have a similar mission to help our clients organise their information and make it universally accessible too.
Sitemaps
As MJB Data websites are almost all built as online database applications, (also known as content management systems), generating XML format sitemaps compatible with the experimental Google Sitemaps programme is relatively simple.
Most of the time search engines use programmes often called 'spiders' to crawl around the Internet and grab copies of web-pages for the index that people then search through. (In case you didn't know, Google doesn't search the Internet each time you use - it searches a copy it made earlier).
With over 8 billion pages to keep up-to date it's hardly surprising for Google to look for with ways to help make the process a bit more formal and efficient. Most people want their website to appear in Google these days and while this programme probably won't do much to improve your ranking by itself, it can help you focus on the structure of your information architecture.
RSS
Producing RSS, (Really Simple Syndication) feeds is a similar exercise to producing XML sitemaps. They're both different forms of output from the same content management database, and they both help to distribute information to the largest possible audience.
RSS and the use of little News-reader applications are still not that common but RSS feeds are more noticeable now than ever before, and with Aunty Beeb feeding its news headlines via xml, it won't be long before everyone's at it.