Linux
Google Releases New Sitemap Generator
Google Webmaster Central has created a new sitemap generator and released it to the general public. The new generator is open source and uses your webserver’s traffic, its log files, or the files found on the server to quickly find the URLs on your site.
It ping Google blog search and creates the following sitemap files for you:
- XML Sitemaps for Web Search according to the sitemaps.org standard
- Mobile Sitemaps for mobile-friendly websites
- Code Search Sitemaps for source code that you make available to users
The generator is a server plugin that can be installed on Linux/Apache and Microsoft IIS Windows-based servers. For more information, check out the Google Sitemap Generator documentation.
Related Reading:
Google Listening To SEW Blog? Offers Video Sitemaps
Enhancements to Sitemaps Announced At SES New York
Google Releases New Version of Sitemap Generator Tool (2005)
Microsoft Prefers Flash to Silverlight
Despite all the controversy over Microsoft using Silverlight to take over the rich internet market from Adobe Flash, the software giant seems to be not even trying. In fact, even most Microsoft web sites are using Flash instead of Silverlight.
A quick check through Microsoft properties reveals that only the Microsoft Home Page 
and the Microsoft Developer Network use Silverlight; MSN Video, Zune.net and the new WWTelescope all use Flash.
Microsoft even appears to be on par with Adobe when it comes to platforms outside of Windows. Silverlight works on Safari for Mac or PC, as well as on Firefox and other Mozilla-based browsers. Silverlight even seems to work “unofficially” on Opera (as long you pretend you’re not running Opera).
Silverlight isn’t supported in Linux, but as an avid Ubuntu fan, I can tell you that Flash does not work well in Linux either. A host of open-source alternatives, like Gnash, have mostly solved that issue. Former Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen’s fears of Microsoft favoring Windows seem incredibly unfounded.
But if Microsoft is playing nice for a change, why are they afraid of promoting their product — and why are they afraid of even using it? Maybe “nice” is too novel a strategy for Redmond. It may take some getting used to — for everyone.
Firewall Script – do you need one?
Ad: Do you use a shared hosting account? Are you running a website powered by a script that you can’t change – like one that is ioncube encoded? Concerned about malicious scripts being run from your server? Losing sleep over your site being hacked or broken into?
I’ve been running websites on various servers for a [...]
MSN and Yahoo Merged: How Would It All Mash Up?
Hold on tight SEM artists. Search marketing is mainstream bacon & eggs in America this morning. Even the “tease” story on the Today show was Microsoft’s “huge takeover bid to purchase struggling” Yahoo!
Microsoft’s profits have been soaring due to increased demand for computer software. Yahoo is in the dumper, having just laid off 1,000 people. Is this acquisition finally real?
In 2006, the SearchEngineWatch blog was aBuzz with “Microsoft buying Yahoo” posts and hashing out possibilities in search marketing forum chit-chat threads. The Wall Street Journal prognosticated about the possibility of “a major departure for Microsoft.” They wrote, “Microsoft has considered the idea of acquiring a stake in Yahoo, and that the two companies have discussed possible options over the course of the past year.”
Some SEMs who love major search engine drama games saw this one coming down the pike years ago, and are still salivating. For others, the very idea would be hell. Personally it makes me just giddy.
The potential implications for both organic and paid search marketing could be del.ici.us for the Microsoft desktop. For PPC the much maligned Panama and AdCenter paid advertising platforms, along with all their graphically beautiful albeit dysfunctionalretarded inadequacies, could be fixed.
Think about the intriguing social media marketing adventures which would be possible. Maybe Yahoo Answers will integrate in Windows Mobile OS. Office 2009 might just include Word documents sporting a new “Insert/Flickr Image” function. How does this affect the market landscape for Google’s much heralded GPhone initiative. An aligned Yahoo/MS mobile platform-play would no doubt be a fascinating addendum to the Linux vs. Windows shoot out.
How will Yahoo email mashup with Outlook? What would pumping Yahoo Pipes into the MS machine mean to the feed aggregation paradigm? How would Microsoft create marketing mechanisms marketing to the decade old Yahoo Personals social graph?
The list goes on. MSN AdCenter was the first mainstream engine to dabble in demographic targeting, but the interface is weak. One would hope a combined Yahoo/MS team would know what to do with reams of data Yahoo has gathered about us all.
Aside from the potential effect on Yahoo/MS investors and the American economy (which will be reported on ad nauseum), the implications for the search marketing industry could be massive and exciting. Stay tuned. It might finally be true. Hold on tight search marketers and we’ll see how it all mashes up.
Google Takes Gold and Silver in Japan: NTT DoCoMo and KDDI
Soon 80 percent of the mobile phones in Japan will feature the Google search engine.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Google will have an 80 percent share of all Japanese local mobile searches. Google partnerships with the #1 and #2 mobile carriers in Japan forces Yahoo and MSN to compete for the bronze.
Here’s the math: Google [...]
Google Takes Gold and Silver in Japan: NTT DoCoMo and KDDI
Soon 80 percent of the mobile phones in Japan will feature the Google search engine.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Google will have an 80 percent share of all Japanese local mobile searches. Google partnerships with the #1 and #2 mobile carriers in Japan forces Yahoo and MSN to compete for the bronze.
Here’s the math: Google (NTT DocCoMo + KDDI) = 80 percent of the Japanese mobile phone market. Not a bad equation.
Google announced today a partnership with NTT DoCoMo to place the Google search box, apps and services on 48 million mobile users in Japan.
Nothing extraordinary here — bigger share of searches, ubiquity of Gmail — all in search of local mobile ad revenue, and of course, indexing all the world’s information.
The partners aren’t strangers: Google NTT Docomo are shooting for 10 billion yen (only 942 million USD) in shared ad revenue (split undisclosed) with a Linux-based mobile handset in Japan.
Expect more partnerships post-Davos and pre-Google earnings announcements.
Open Source vs. Walled Gardens
Open vs. Walled – let the best win.
Recently in Boston, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, was pushing a theme that is dear to many of us. The Mobile Web should grow with open standards. The Walled Garden approach should be abandoned.
The mobile Internet needs to be fully and completely the [...]
Mandriva CEO Blasts Ballmer Over Nigeria Deal
Francois Bancilhon has posted an open letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to complain about Microsoft’s business tactics. Mssr. Bancilhon, welcome to the real world. Microsoft has a long history of playing tough with the competition.
Mandriva’s CEO is not happy with Ballmer and Microsoft. Mandriva has been working a deal with the Nigerian government [...]
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