On Wednesday, Bing announced a partnership that would include status updates from both social networking websites in search results, according to a report by All Things Digital’s, which has been confirmed since then. Twitter has reportedly been looking for search partnerships the past month, while Microsoft had already invested $240 million into Facebook back in 2007 and has signed multiple search and advertisement deals with the website. A short while ago, a Beta version of the search feature was launched and new information is being revealed as we speak by Microsoft’s search team, led by executive Qi Lu at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. To check out Bing’s version of Twitter integration, visit http://www.bing.com/twitter

However, just a short while ago, Google announced that they have reached a deal with Twitter to include tweets in search results as well. While not much has been announced, the staff of Google made a few statements on the deal.

Quote from the Official Google Blog: http://www.googleblog.blogspot.com

“At Google, our goal is to create the most comprehensive, relevant and fast search in the world. In the past few years, an entirely new type of data has emerged — real-time updates like those on Twitter have appeared not only as a way for people to communicate their thoughts and feelings, but also as an interesting source of data about what is happening right now in regard to a particular topic.

Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.”

As we all know, social network has become a big part of our daily routine. Whether it’s posting a Tweet about your day, updating your Mood and Status on MySpace, or sending an IM to your friend on Facebook, the majority of Internet users use at least one social networking website. There are many aside from the three I’ve mentioned, but these three are the biggest ones on the Web and have the most traffic. A lot of people want to know how these websites fair against one another. So, we’ll be comparing traffic, the general user base, and a few other things.

MySpace – Likely the most well-known of the three websites, MySpace was founded in August 2003 by Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. In 2005, it was purchased by News Corporation for $580 million dollars, and while many people it was the end of the MySpace era, is became the most popular social networking site in the United States in June 2006, but was surpassed by Facebook for worldwide unique visits in 2008. The website is believed to be best known for revolutionizing pop culture and launching the still widely-popular MySpace Music service.

However, in recent months, MySpace’s unique visitor average has dropped from 55.6 million unique visitors in August to 50.2 million in September, and the company has dropped 20% in US traffic since June, and because of this, MySpace’s net value is decreasing greatly. There are still millions of people that use MySpace, but if you take a look at their traffic now compared to 2006, it’s dropped rapidly. Personally, I still prefer MySpace over Facebook, but as traffic drops, you’ll begin to notice more advertisements and some of your favorite features may start to disappear over time. However, the one website that has been gaining traffic while MySpace is slowly becoming irrelevant is Facebook, our next website to discuss.

Facebook – On February 4, 2004, Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard University, along with several of his roommates. It started out as Thefacebook, but it has transformed into the second most viewed website, second only to Google. The website currently has more than 300 million active users worldwide, and while met with controversy, is widely popular. In January, a Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social network by worldwide monthly active users, followed by MySpace. So, what is Facebook all about, and why should you use it?

Facebook has recently been rapidly expanding over the past two years. The reason? Facebook was originally designed for college students, but over time it has become a place for people who are typically older, whereas MySpace has become the social hub for a younger audience, although statistically speaking, the average MySpace user is 32, while the everyday Facebook user is 35 and older. Many older people are making the transition from MySpace to Facebook, though, so we can expect the numbers to change over the next few years. As of last month, Facebook is receiving 82.9 million unique visitors, which is about 33 million more than MySpace and almost 76 million more than Twitter. Facebook has a much simpler interface than MySpace and makes connecting with relatives and friends a lot easier than Twitter, so it’s fairly easy to see why people choose it. So, now we’re left with Twitter, the smallest of the three, yet what also appears to be the most promising.

Twitter – By now, you’ve probably heard of Twitter, whether is was mentioned by some celebrity, news corporation, etc. You may also hear people mention something about things called Tweets, and either it sounds like something ridiculous or a thing a bird would do. Originally founded by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone, it is created purely from private funding, which keeps the website running smooth and advertisement free. Twitter is known for 140 text-based messages and for sharing video, pictures, and links to cool web pages. So, what makes Twitter so unique? Let’s find out.

Although Twitter receives 55 million hits monthly, only about 6 or 7 of these are unique hits, which mean not many people are registering, but just a year ago, you would’ve never guessed Twitter would be such a huge hit. Over this past year, Twitter had a monthly growth of 1,382 percent, and no other website has come close to that kind of growth; Facebook, the second closest website, is trailing by over 1,000 percent. With an incredibly simple interface, the fastest growing network on the Web and one of the best ways for people to connect through short messages, Twitter is one of the most revolutionary websites we’ve ever seen, and it’s a great tool for anyone, including us at AbleBlogger.

So, with all of the new social networking buzz, it appears that Twitter and Facebook will soon dethrone MySpace as the “King of Social Networking” and fiercely compete for the title of best social networking website.

What is Google Sitemap? Technically a Google Sitemap is an XML document that contains information about all of the Web pages on your site.

What information does a Google Sitemap hold about my Web pages? In a Google sitemap you can include parameters. Some examples of these parameters are the URL of your Web page, the date you last updated your Web site , how often the Web page is updated , and also that specific Web pages priority in the site.

What do I do with it? All you need to do is create this file, pass it off to Google, and Google will finish the rest.

What does Google do with it? No one really understands how Google uses this XML file. After you submit the file, Google basically says that it gives no guarantee on traffic/rank increase. However there have been many people who have claimed significant increases in their Google ranking.

How do I produce a Google Sitemap?

Just do these following steps:

The first thing you need to do is create your XML file. Don’t worry though; there are many of utilities that do this for you AND they are for free online. One of the ones I like is at www.sitemapbuilder.net.
The next instruction you need to do is get the XML file you just created submitted to Google. All you have to do is visit www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login and login with your Google account. Once you’ve logged in you can add as many Sitemaps as you like.

The most important thing to do is remember to keep your site map current. Remember that every time you make a modification to your site you will need to repeat this process again.
That’s it. I hope this was an easy walkthrough on how to generate your very own Google sitemap. Hopefully you will be able to increase your ranking on Google with this easy technique.

Remember: Google is introducing their new Mobile Sitemap program. If your site is mobile-friendly then I would also recommend generating sitemaps for that program as well.

Yesterday, Google released their new product, the Google Wave. Google Wave is a new online tool that can be used for real-time communication between two or more people. It can be used as either a conversation or document that people can use to discuss ideas and share beautifully formatted text, photos, videos, maps, etc.

Now, you may be wondering what exactly a wave is. It’s a tool that allows anyone to edit any part of the document or conversation, then play it back to review the wave and see what each individual had to say, etc. Because the wave is live, users can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time, unlike with other communication tools. Along with spell check and real-time collaboration, Google Wave also allows users to embed waves in other sites or add live social gadgets, thanks to Google Wave APIs.

However, like any other product, Google Wave has its early flaws. The service is currently invite-only, which has generated an uproar from those who have not yet received an invitation. Many users have been offering invites on the social networking website Twitter, but many users are trying to directly contact Google for access and invites. There have also been issues with fake “Google Wave Invite” links, which is causing people to question how secure the Wave actually is.

Still, those who have had the opportunity to test Google Wave (myself included) are quite happy with what we’re seeing. Once it is released to the public, it will likely be the next big thing when it comes to Internet communication.

This is a guest article by Clayton. Let us know how did you like post of this guest author