Computer Tips

Another look at Google

Every few months it seems as if it makes sense to check in with Google and see what news things they are doing. Below are three things – the first two are for searchers and the last is for web owners.

Google Alerts

This is a service that tracks news and new items on the web. You enter a topic and they will send an email with related items that they have recently added to their database.

My search history

This is a way to track your history of Google searches – then you can revisit them by visiting the “My Search History” page – which shows results by calendar. The advantage to this over your browser’s history is that you can login and access it from any computer.

Google Site Maps

Google has created a way for webmasters to submit a site map directly to Google. This is a good way to make sure that all of the pages in your site are indexed by Google. You need to know how to upload items to your server and understand some scripting to do this well. An alterative is to send .txt site maps that only include URLs to the pages of your site. I have been trying this with some customers and will report back later to let you know how this has been going.

4 thoughts on “Another look at Google

  1. Pingback: State Newslines « Byte of the Week

  2. I simply uploaded the xml file and then submitted the map through Google’s web master tools pages: http://www.google.com/webmasters

    Since I wrote this I have heard conflicting views on the site maps. I’m not as diligent about adding them as I once was – but if I have a site that’s having trouble I do add them if for no reason other – because Google will run a little diagnostics to flag any potential issues I haven’t otherwise caught.

  3. Pingback: Blogs & Twitter for job seekers « Byte of the Week

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