Jenn Riley wrote
> 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,
Thanks for catching me on this. I've made this mistake before, been corrected, and made it again. The relevant page is at: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/04/retiring-support-for-oai-pmh-in.html and yes, it is "site maps."
Probably the reason for my hard-headedness is that I don't understand either topic maps or site maps at all, while I understand OAI-PMH rather well. Thanks for keeping me honest. Maybe now I'll get it through my head!
Jim Weinheimer
Received on Wed Sep 16 2009 - 13:11:59 EDT