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February 15, 1998
SiteSweeper 2.0
SiteSweeper 2.0 is a handy quality assurance tool that every Webmaster
needs.
Although many products will test a site's URLs, SiteSweeper goes well
beyond this basic functionality. It will examine images for proper dimensions,
file sizes, predicted download times, redirected destinations, and almost
every other imaginable thing that could possibly go wrong on your site.
The program's Windows-based management interface is clean and sparse,
reflecting SiteSweeper's Spartan functionality. Reports are generated
into HTML documents, and are also very well designed and easy to understand.
Reports can be automated, but cannot be sent via e-mail.
One of SiteSweeper's more interesting tests is META tag validation,
flagging documents that do not have mandatory entries. Another unique
feature is the built-in document and image catalog, which allows you
to get specific information about a file, including other files that
link to it.
I only encountered one problem with the product. On the site I tested,
I used frames to separate navigation functions from content, and one
image in the navigation frame did not have an ALT tag. SiteSweeper reported
this tag as missing from every page, although the image itself only appeared
in the navigational frame. Site-Sweeper should have noticed that the
frame containing the image was separate from the content document.
Overall, however, the quality of SiteSweeper is among the highest level
I have seen. Almost everything works as expected, is visually appealing,
and is easy to understand.
Written by Eric
A. Hall.
Copyright © 1998 InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. Used with permission. |