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Last night, Google announced on the Google Webmaster Center blog that they are removing three features from Google Webmaster Tools as part of their "spring cleaning efforts." They include:
Site Performance
This is a feature I like to use, where I can check the historical changes to how the site speed is over time. Google introduced this feature back in 2009 and it has been plagued with issues since it has launched. Google said it is being "removed due to low usage." There are of course other tools you can use, including site speed in Analytics and others.
Robots.txt Tool
A tool I don't think I ever used, and Google said it had "very low usage" and they are removing it. Google said most sites do not even need a robots.txt file, and if they do, you can use a text editor to make one.
Subscriber stats
Google is removing this report as well. It was introduced when they acquired Feedburner and wanted to bring in additional reports into Google Webmaster Tools. Truth is, it is rarely used as well and RSS readers is somewhat dying as well.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
Comments:
Murthy SEO
04/25/2012 01:05 pm
Both 3 are rarely used tool. But, robots.txt tool I think.
Yehoshua Coren
04/25/2012 01:06 pm
I'm going to miss the Site Performance tools
Venus Brown
04/25/2012 01:10 pm
"Site performance" is a nice tool when it comes to analyze your website. But its also true that Site Speed have similar function and is better.
Asad
04/25/2012 03:25 pm
These three doesnt matter much but what about the Author stats which was dropped some days ago? Will it return?
Greg
04/25/2012 03:41 pm
Site performance is a hugely useful tool - I don't think they should remove that at all.
OKA Jewelry
04/26/2012 12:06 am
I never use this three features
Paweł Rabinek
04/26/2012 02:05 pm
I liked Site Performance tool although it was inaccurate, but simple.
Jimmer
04/26/2012 02:25 pm
Site Performance is much needed ....wonder why
Sangeeta Seotech
04/27/2012 04:05 am
Site Performance is Really useful, I have used it, It really helps!!!
Vikas
04/27/2012 04:58 am
I never use this three features
Deva Ashish Singh
04/27/2012 09:55 am
Osh...!!! Google panda affect harms a lot then now removing these features. :-(
Sunny Mannan
04/27/2012 12:43 pm
"Site Performance " is very useful features.........................
Oracle DBA Services
04/27/2012 01:07 pm
My friends was working on 1 website, suddenly all the keywords positions dropped for that site, Maybe because of algorithm update...
James Bavington
10/18/2012 08:04 pm
I've always thought the old Webmaster Tools Page 'Site Performance' tool was a little inaccurate. I've been playing around with the Page Speed features within Analytics now which is obviously much more flexible for analysing your page-speed efforts.
MattStorms
10/31/2012 08:37 pm
I rarely used these three tools. So let's stir the pot Barry, what is the new tools and such that will replace these?