XSL formatted XML

Can Google handle the xml/xsl client side version?

[Just_Me]

Google claims it can read/spider XML, but seems
to fail when it is XSL formatted XML that is
supposed to be turned into HTML clientside.
Example:
Search for simplexsl.xml ...it is a standard
test file and the first spidered at about #3
...look at it with IE6 and it works, but when
you click Google's "view as HTML" you will see
a blank page. Is there just the html conversion
broken or does Google "cheat" a bit with its
XML support claim..? If Google's XML support is
"broken", did someone test what works and what
not and tell me how I can use clientside
combination of pure xml data and xsl layout
files with Google, if not done like in this demo..?

Thanks ;)

[Gus_R]

Hi, I would change to a server based app, like asp, doing inner transformations and delivering plain html.
More process, less bandwith.

added: welcome to webmasterworld :)

[Just_Me]

Thanks for the welcome :)

My traffic fluctuates a lot...with my DB
and server-side-script free concept I can
take sudden bursts of 20k+ users in an hour
without that server load would go too much
up...and bandwidth...all pages are uploaded
normal and as html.gz...bandwidth use is
much lower then with asp...

XML/XSL would in many ways be perfect for me
to organize and display content client side,
but I depend a lot on Google and need a
solution that works with it...

[sullen]

You're right: Google doesn't seem to be able to decode XML/XSL properly and therefore presumably can't read the links etc.

We have a site which uses vast numbers of XML pages (for bandwidth reasons, but also to show off, really) - many XML pages are listed in Google, but with no cache showing and no snippet.

Answer really is to mix the page types: use HTML/ASP for menu pages and home page and XML for others. It probably still won't give you such a good showing in Google but what can you do?

[Just_Me]

We have a site which uses vast numbers of XML pages (for bandwidth reasons, but also to show off, really) - many XML pages are listed in Google, but with no cache showing and no snippet.

Hmmmm...and did any of the .xml pages get visitors
by Google..? Imho it is odd that Google would show
in its results empty pages as "víew as html"
shows.

I mailed Google about the xml issue and will try to
get an answer. They claim to support xml yet all
.xml results carry a text "unknown format".
Besides that Google is holding the whole Internet
developement by not supporting formats that exist
for years like html.gz content encoding or xml,
but instead implement .pdf, powerpoint and other
non web Formats...ask myself how much they got
from those companies for integrating their formats..

[sullen]

No, no users! I only know they are in the index because I searched on "-asdf site:www.mysite.com".

It may be relevant that our xml pages are named .asp as they are database-generated xml. Or it may not be.

I think when Google say they support xml, they just mean they can spider and index the actual pages. So not much good really.