Google Webmaster Central has come out with a new Google Sitemap Generator tool which according to Google, uses various ways to identify site URLs as opposed to simply crawling a website.
The new Google Sitemap Generator identifies URLs on the server side to be added to XML sitemaps via accessing webserver traffic, log files and files found on the server. JohnMu of Google says that via the combination of such methods “Google Sitemap Generator can be very fast in finding these URLs and calculating relevant metadata, thereby making your Sitemap files as effective as possible.”
Not only does the Google Sitemaps Generator create XML sitemap files, but it also assists to build Mobile Sitemaps and Code Search Sitemaps as well.
John Mueller adds on the Google Webmaster Central Blog :
In addition, Google Sitemap Generator can send a ping to Google Blog Search for all of your new or modified URLs. You can optionally include the URLs of the Sitemap files in your robots.txt file as well as “ping” the other search engines that support the sitemaps.org standard.
Before taking part on the beta testing of the Google Sitemap Generator, remember that this works on the server side and be sure to make sure you are protecting your users’ privacy. Google warns :
Any Sitemap information that you send to Google (including Sitemaps created using the Sitemap Generator) should be consistent with commitments you make to your users in your site’s privacy policy. If your site contains or generates URLs that contain user information, you must filter the user information out of the data that you send to Google.
