Unification on Sitemaps

At Webmaster World it was announced that the “Big Three” - Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft were uniting on the Sitemap front. The protocol of an XML file to allow the search engine to index a site more intelligently has been adopted. Now, Google has had their Sitemap program for awhile. Yahoo! allowed you to submit an XML feed through their add URL option, but at Webmaster World they added the function to Site Explorer. That leaves Microsoft and their “sometime in 2007″ comment … which on their schedule could be 2008.

Microsoft used to either innovate quickly or rip-off technology to get to the front of the line. Now, it seems that they just “take it easy” on every project they take on. This is not the same Microsoft I remember battling when I was with WordPerfect in the late 80s and early 90s. Is it just me? It seems clear that ever since Gates has stepped out of the lead role, the aggressiveness of Microsoft has been lost.

That’s a shame.