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Thursday, January 03, 2008
2007 has been a great year of change and growth for theWebmaster Centralteam. Without the webmaster community helping us drive our vision to create better tools we
wouldn't have accomplished much. All of us with the Webmaster Central team would like to say a big
thank you to everyone! Before we look ahead to 2008 and begin to incorporateyour feedback from the blog postsanddiscussion groups,
we would like to take a minute to reflect upon some of our bigger feats of the last twelve months.
Our blog has been very active since its launch in August 2006, and we hope you've found it
helpful. For those who are new readers, you can find useful information about our Webmaster Tools
updates here, as well as articles on how to make your sites more search engine-friendly and
user-friendly. Outside of the US, we have readers from the UK, France, Canada, India and Germany,
just to name a few—it just goes to show what a big and widespread community you are! In fact, we
also have a dedicated group of readers for our Webmaster CentralGermanandChinablogs. For
thosekeeping track, 47.28% of you are using Firefox
to read our blog and 45.06% are using Internet Explorer, and our most popular post this past
December answered your questions onmetatags and web search.
Here's a snapshot of what ourtop search querieslook like for December:
January
Made preparations for our big debut (see February)
It was a busy year, but we had a lot of fun. I hope you'll stick with us as we embark on moregreat adventures in 2008.
Remember, you can always reach out to us through ourdiscussion groupor at various search conferences throughout the year and around the globe!
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle Webmaster Central significantly enhanced Webmaster Tools throughout 2007, adding features like URL removal, Sitemap analysis, geographic targeting, and support for multiple languages.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe Webmaster Central team actively engaged with the webmaster community through their blog, discussion groups, and participation in international conferences.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmaster Tools officially moved out of beta in February 2007 and launched a Message Center to facilitate direct communication with webmasters.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe Webmaster Central blog expanded its reach with dedicated German and Chinese versions, addressing a diverse and growing global audience.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGoogle emphasized the importance of user-friendliness and search engine optimization, offering resources and updates to help webmasters improve their sites' visibility and performance.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["The Webmaster Central team reviewed their 2007 achievements, which included moving Webmaster Tools out of beta, launching new features like external and internal links, and adding URL removal. They also improved Sitemap feedback, unveiled a Message Center, and added non-English domain name support. Updates were made to the blog, Help Center, and Webmaster Tools UI. The team attended conferences, and added language support. Lastly, they shared tips on universal search and added features like Video Sitemaps.\n"],null,["# Looking back on 2007\n\nThursday, January 03, 2008\n\n\n2007 has been a great year of change and growth for the [Webmaster Central](/search)\nteam. Without the webmaster community helping us drive our vision to create better tools we\nwouldn't have accomplished much. All of us with the Webmaster Central team would like to say a big\nthank you to everyone! Before we look ahead to 2008 and begin to incorporate\n[your feedback from the blog posts](/search/blog/2007/12/festivus-for-webmasterus) and\n[discussion groups](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community),\nwe would like to take a minute to reflect upon some of our bigger feats of the last twelve months.\n\n\nOur blog has been very active since its launch in August 2006, and we hope you've found it\nhelpful. For those who are new readers, you can find useful information about our Webmaster Tools\nupdates here, as well as articles on how to make your sites more search engine-friendly and\nuser-friendly. Outside of the US, we have readers from the UK, France, Canada, India and Germany,\njust to name a few---it just goes to show what a big and widespread community you are! In fact, we\nalso have a dedicated group of readers for our Webmaster Central\n[German](/search/blog?hl=de) and [China](/search/blog?hl=zh_cn) blogs. For\nthose\n[keeping track](/search/blog/2007/01/year-in-review), 47.28% of you are using Firefox\nto read our blog and 45.06% are using Internet Explorer, and our most popular post this past\nDecember answered your questions on\n[`meta` tags and web search](/search/blog/2007/12/answering-more-popular-picks-meta-tags).\nHere's a snapshot of what our\n[top search queries](/search/blog/2007/10/blast-from-past) look like for December:\n\nJanuary\n-------\n\n- Made preparations for our big debut (see February)\n\nFebruary\n--------\n\n- Moved [Webmaster Tools](https://search.google.com/search-console) officially [out of beta](/search/blog/2007/02/our-valentines-day-gift-out-of-beta)\n- Traveled the globe and met with webmasters like you at conferences in [Australia](/search/blog/2007/02/traveling-down-under-gwc-at-search) and [London](/search/blog/2007/02/come-see-us-at-ses-london-and-hear)\n- Launched the [external and internal links feature](/search/blog/2007/02/discover-your-links) in Webmaster Tools to make it easier for you to learn about your links\n\nMarch\n-----\n\n- Extended anchor text information to [show the entire phrase sites use to link](/search/blog/2007/03/get-more-complete-picture-about-how) to you (not just individual words)\n- Posted some [helpful articles](/search/blog/2007/03/using-robots-meta-tag) about robots.txt\n- Kicked off a new [blog for German webmasters](/search/blog?hl=de)\n\nApril\n-----\n\n- Met with more of you at [SES New York](/search/blog/2007/04/drop-by-and-see-us-at-ses-ny)\n- [Added URL removal](/search/blog/2007/04/requesting-removal-of-content-from-our) to Webmaster Tools\n\nMay\n---\n\n- [Shared some useful tips](/search/blog/2007/05/taking-advantage-of-universal-search) on how webmasters can make use of Google's newly unveiled [universal search](https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/05/universal-search-best-answer-is-still.html)\n- Met with webmasters like you at [conferences in China, Italy, New York and San Jose](/search/blog/2007/05/why-we-attend-conferences)\n\nJune\n----\n\n- Revamped the [Help Center](https://support.google.com/webmasters) to make it easier for everyone to find the content they need\n- Reached out to webmasters at [conferences in Seattle, Santa Clara and Toronto](/search/blog/2007/05/why-we-attend-conferences)\n\nJuly\n----\n\n- Unveiled the [Message Center](/search/blog/2007/07/message-center-let-us-communicate-with), a key component in helping us keep in touch with you!\n- [Improved Sitemap feedback](/search/blog/2007/07/new-warnings-feedback) to help you identify important issues in your Sitemaps\n- Launched a Webmaster Central blog in [China](/search/blog?hl=zh_cn)\n\nAugust\n------\n\n- Enabled [non-English domain names](/search/blog/2007/08/written-by-trevor-foucher-webmaster) in Webmaster Tools\n- Chatted with you at [SES San Jose](/search/blog/2007/08/join-us-at-cool-ses-san-jose-itll-be)\n- Updated Webmaster Tool's feature to help you [analyze your robots.txt](/search/blog/2007/08/new-robotstxt-feature-and-rep-meta-tags) files\n\nSeptember\n---------\n\n- [Updated](/search/blog/2007/09/subscriber-stats-and-more) Webmaster Tools:\n - Introduced Subscriber stats\n - Revamped the UI\n - Added support for 2 new languages: Romanian and Turkish\n\nOctober\n-------\n\n- Went all out for [Halloween](/search/blog/2007/10/happy-halloween-to-our-spooktacular) in true Google fashion\n- Launched new features in Webmaster Tools---and a lot of them:\n - Sitemap updates: [cross-submissions](/search/blog/2007/10/dealing-with-sitemap-cross-submissions) and [Code Search Sitemaps](/search/blog/2007/10/introducing-code-search-sitemaps)\n - [Top search queries](/search/blog/2007/10/blast-from-past)---for the last 6 months!\n - [Sitelinks](/search/blog/2007/10/webmasters-can-now-provide-feedback-on) feature to help you identify the ones you have and help you get rid of the ones you don't like\n - [Set your geographic target](/search/blog/2007/10/better-geographic-choices-for) to help your users find you more easily in country-specific searches\n- Improved [data freshness](/search/blog/2007/10/data-freshness) to keep you better informed about your site's performance\n\nNovember\n--------\n\n- [Highlighted terrific webmasters in the discussion group and introduced Googlers](/search/blog/2007/11/dozen-ways-to-discuss-webmaster-help) ready to answer your questions in 11 non-English languages.\n- Made it easier for [Go Daddy](/search/blog/2007/11/go-daddy-and-google-offer-easy-access) users to access our tools\n- Produced some helpful videos featuring our very own Matt Cutts on the [anatomy of a search result](/search/blog/2007/11/anatomy-of-search-result) and how to [use alt attributes intelligently](/search/blog/2007/12/using-alt-attributes-smartly)\n\nDecember\n--------\n\n- Another [Webmaster Tools update](/search/blog/2007/12/new-content-analysis-and-sitemap) loaded with new features:\n - Improved Sitemap summary pages to help you identify issues in your Sitemaps\n - Content analysis\n - [Video Sitemaps](/search/blog/2007/12/introducing-video-sitemaps)\n - Added support for 2 new languages: Czech and Hungarian\n- Attended PubCon in Las Vegas and [SES Chicago](https://groups.google.com/group/Google_Webmaster_Help-Indexing/browse_thread/thread/2c01972035fb01a5)\n\n\nIt was a busy year, but we had a lot of fun. I hope you'll stick with us as we embark on more\n[great adventures in 2008](https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/google.com/embed?src=gwebmastercentral%40gmail.com).\nRemember, you can always reach out to us through our\n[discussion group](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community)\nor at various search conferences throughout the year and around the globe!\n\nWritten by Liza Ma, Webmaster Tools Team"]]
