Monday, 28 August 2006

Google Launches Webmaster Central Site, Renames Google Sitemaps to Google Webmaster Tools

Google has launched a new site called Webmaster Central, which the company says will help foster better communication with site owners. Google also announced that Google Sitemaps has been renamed Google Webmaster Tools. Users can add web sites to their Google Tools accounts and edit how those sites are indexed.

Webmaster Central will feature a blog to keep users informed about how Google crawls the Web, an expanded Webmaster Help Google Group, and a number of FAQs. As part of the Webmaster tools service, formerly called Google Sitemaps, users can add a web site to their Google account and make changes to how it is indexed.

"Lately, we've been trying to make sure that we've got a little more transparency so that people don't just see a black box," Matt Cutts at SES said. "They're like, 'Why don't I rank well' or 'How can I get more information about this issue I care about?' We've been a little more secret at times, but now the trend is toward being more transparent", he concluded.