Microsoft (Still) Doesn’t Get The Web

Microsoft has a long history of releasing “not ready for primetime” products.  I recently tried to add this blog’s xml sitemap to their “webmaster tools” on Windows Live Search.  I would have to say that their new “webmaster tools” is another in a long line of Microsoft failures. 

When going to the site to add a sitemap, the user is presented with a simple form.  The form asks for the web site address, the address of the sitemap, how you want to verify ownership of the site (the usual meta tag or by uploading an xml file), and the webmaster’s email address.  Seems simple, right?  Not so fast!  Entering http://www.julianhilltech.com gives an error that says “Invalid web address”.  Dropping the http:// at the beginning yields the same result and adding a “/” on the end yields the same result.  Putting http://www.julianhilltech.com/sitemap.xml as the location of my sitemap yields an error that says my sitemap must be in the root of my web site.  Huh?!  Did you look at the URL? 

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Tags: Live Search, Microsoft, web, Webmaster Tools