CoffeeCup Google SiteMapper

July 8, 2008 · Filed Under Google/SEO, Software · 1 Comment 

Today we’re going to take a look at the Google SiteMapper by CoffeeCup.

By placing a sitemap file on your Website, you enable Google and other search engines to find out what pages are present, which have recently changed and have them spider your Website accordingly. Using Sitemaps allow you to inform and direct Google and other search engines what content you have available on your Website.

Google Sitemaps are an easy way for you to help improve your coverage in Google search results. It’s a system that enables you to communicate directly with Google to keep them informed of all your web pages, and when you make changes to these pages. CoffeeCup Google Sitemapper takes all the work out of creating a Google Sitemap. Just enter your Website Address and click go… Presto! The Sitemap is made and ready to upload.

When you first open the program, you will see the screen below.CoffeeCup Google SiteMapper open screen

For this example, I’m going to create a sitemap for one of my other sites. In the “Website Address:” field, I just type in the address. If you wanted to create a sitemap based off of local files on your computer, you would click the top radio button that says “Create SiteMap based on my Local Files”.

By clicking the “Options…” button in the middle, you are given the opportunity to ignore folders/files, change page colors, set different output options or ignore certain queries. On the example site, I always set it to ignore the blog directory, because my blog on that site uses a different sitemap tool that is designed for Wordpress.
CoffeeCup Google SiteMapper options

Once you’re satisfied with your configuration options, press “OK” and then “Next”. After that, the CoffeeCup super-spiders will crawl your website and start collecting page data. Once that’s complete, you’ll see a list of all your pages that it found. It will only find pages that are interlinked together. If you have a page that isn’t connected by linking, it will not appear on your sitemap by default. Here is what mine looks like:CoffeeCup Google SiteMapper results page

If you’re satisfied with the results, choose the desired output location and hit “Save”. You will then be given the option to upload your sitemap or submit it to Google. Normally, I just close the window and upload it myself. The program also creates a .csm file that doesn’t need to be uploaded. That’s a saved program file that stores your sitemap info for later.
CoffeeCup Google SiteMapper saved files

Overall, I think CoffeeCup is correct when they say “Just enter your Website Address and click go… Presto!” It really is that easy. You can see a live sitemap created with CoffeeCup Google SiteMapper here.

If you would like to try the software out for yourself, you can download it here.

Compare text files with ExamDiff

June 27, 2008 · Filed Under Software · Comment 

Have you ever needed to find the differences between two text files? You may not need to everyday, but if/when you ever do, ExamDiff really makes it easy. ExamDiff is a freeware Windows tool for visual file comparison. It has a number of simple and convenient features that many users have been asking for a long time from a file comparison tool.

As soon as you run the program, you will see the following window:
when examdiff first opens

For my first example I’ve used a php file that is used on this site. I copied the file and then made a minor change to the second one. I replaced a semicolon for a colon at the end of line #45 and it picked it up right away.
examine differences between two php files

My second example uses a normal text file. Unfortunatly, the free version doesn’t support wordwrap so it only shows you the line in which the difference takes place.
examine differences between two text files

Once you scroll to the right (both sides simultaneously), you can see the difference.examine differences between two text files

In all my examples, the highlighted text is a bright green color. That’s not the default color. To change the color of the highlighted lines go to options > display.

PrestoSoft - ExamDiff