While I have debated the usefulness of Google Sitemaps, I believe Google is finally making this tool something more than just an unproven novelty.
--
This just in: Google sitemaps is finally a useful tool. When Google launched sitemaps in June of 2005, they predicted that sitemaps would either be an enormous success or a colossal failure. Up to this point, sitemaps looked as if they were going to be that colossal failure. The system simply did not offer enough benefit to website owners for the amount of work required to put together and maintain an XML sitemap.

But it seems as if Google sitemaps is going to get new life. Google upgraded sitemaps to be far more powerful than before. Sitemaps is no longer a tool to simply get your website indexed, it is now a useful tool to quickly find problem areas on your website that might be hurting your ranking or indexing.

View Improvements to Google Sitemaps
There are several improvements to Google sitemaps. You can see them by going to their website. Here is a list of their new features.

Errors on Your Website

No Actual Sitemap Required

A Significant Change in Attitude Towards Website Owners

A portion of this article was found at Site Reference.

I am always in favor of Google helping us understand the mysteries of their ranking system, if you need help in your understanding of getting better rankings on Google, visit Big Oak SEO for more information.