Microsoft, finally launched a Webmaster portal designed to run side-by-side with the new Live Search. Right now, it is now available in beta. The users may log in at http://webmaster.live.com.
The portal first verifies your site by adding an meta tag or by uploading a xml file. Verification is almost instantaneous and you can play with it the next second, also interface is rather simple and sleek. The functions are pretty much the same as other such portal (like google’s webmaster tool and yahoo site explorer). The much awaited sitemap support finally arrived.
Site’s summary page is basic but functional, showing when your site was last crawled (or if your site is blocked) and how many pages are included in the Live Search index.
Additionally there is a keyword analysis tool, showing how you would perform on Live Search for certain search queries. To wrap it all off there is an inbound and outbound link analysis, which if you run a proper website will help see where you site is being promoted.
[Submitted by Reshadat]
