Google Sitemaps

isn’t just about giving google an easier way to index your whole website.

(There are two reasons you might want to give Google a sitemap: One is that this will result in extra links in the search results, since Google apparently uses the sitemap to give the user some extra navigation links with the search result; the other is that this way Google can avoid any flash or javascript magic you might be using - though it’s a bad idea - in your webpage.)

One nice feature they added is that they give you an excerpt of the web searches turning up your web page, and the average placement for this term. This is a very nice tool to find out how Google “sees” your webpage. Google also gives you a list of common terms used to refer to your webpage.

Results for my personal webpage have been very interesting. There are a couple of highly ranked search terms that I would never have expected, that will turn up my page with a high placement.

The funniest result is my #1 ranking for Sportfreunde Stiller Torrent, obviously a file sharers search term (Sportfreunde Stiller are a great German indie rock band; check out their new You have to win Zweikampf soccer album. Consider buying it.).

I’m not a filesharer. I like web radios (especially when they play lots of indie music and have high quality Ogg Vorbis streams like M94.5) and I use last.fm quite frequently.

I have however blogged on Bittorrent technology aspects (as a legal file transfer protocol. Did you know that Debian GNU/Linux considers to use torrent technology for distributing software updates?), and also blogged on young German bands that have made the top of the charts the last few years.