The top names in search have agreed on a common method for webmasters to submit their content for indexing. Google Yahoo and Microsoft announced today their support for an XML based open source site map protocol.

The Google sitemap protocol has been in use for the last 18 months. The protocol will be adopted today by Yahoo and Microsoft will begin using it in early 2007.

A sitemap is a structured XML document which lists all of a site’s pages with URL, title, last updated dates, and priority. These files allow for easier indexing of content by the search engines indexing robots.

Some popular sitemap generators:

• Audit My PC
• Sitemap Builder
• Google Sitemap Generator

The protocol will be at sitemaps.org beginning on Thursday.