On 9/15/09 3:02 AM, "Weinheimer Jim" <j.weinheimer_at_aur.edu> wrote:
When this reality came home to me was Google's decision *not* to implement OAI-PMH, which I, in my naivete, had thought was a real solution to some of the problems. Google has decided to go with topic maps, which no doubt will be much simpler than either OAI-PMH or certainly MARC21.
Jim, I've seen you make this statement before on list that Google is using Topic Maps but I'm not sure it's actually correct. Can you point us to some support for this statement? Google is certainly using site maps <http://www.sitemaps.org/>, but I would be more than shocked if they were using the (MUCH more complex) topic maps <http://www.topicmaps.org>. I've certainly seen no evidence of the latter - it would represent a significant shift in Google's thinking towards more structured metadata. They've done this in bits and pieces, but topic maps would represent some very different thinking for them. I didn't see any relevant results for a search on topic maps in the Google Webmaster Central Forum so they're not promoting it to site creators as a way to provide information to Google.
Jenn
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Jenn Riley
Metadata Librarian
Digital Library Program
Indiana University - Bloomington
Wells Library W501
(812) 856-5759
www.dlib.indiana.edu
Inquiring Librarian blog: www.inquiringlibrarian.blogspot.com
Received on Wed Sep 16 2009 - 11:30:44 EDT