Sitemorse is constantly improving its web governance software, and many of the improvements we make are the result of talking to our clients about what they need and then developing the system to suit their requirements.

Sometimes this turns into benefits that can be passed on to all. For example, our technical team have been holding discussions with weather experts the Meteorological Office, which uses Sitemorse to keep track of its expanding web presence. Some innovative new features have come from this.

We've added a facility for the Met office to record page counts for every page Sitemorse tested - in the case of the Met Office that's well over 7,000 pages each month. A new page inside the Enterprise report used by their web managers lists the total number of words per page and the total number of content filter results.

This would have benefits for any user wishing to ensure their content is consistent and correct online - allowing you to find, for example, the pages with the most entries in the recently-published Local Government Association "words to avoid" list aimed at civil servants (the Met Office is part of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills)

The European Union, central government, quangos, regional government, business management speak and public relations phrases were the inspiration for the list of 250 words the LGA would like to eradicate. The list includes words like tonality, undercapacitated, clienting, goldfish bowl facilitated conversation, thought shower, hereditament, and disbenefits. During the recession, the LGA feels, it is vital to explain to people in plain English how to get access to the services the public sector provides with taxpayers’ money.

There are new functions to handle use of images as well as words. Working with the Met Office, we have also added a facility to record any EXIF we see on images during the test.

EXIF is short for Exchangeable Image File, a format that is a standard for storing interchange information in digital photography image files using JPEG compression. Almost all new digital cameras use the EXIF annotation, storing information on the image such as shutter speed, exposure compensation, date and time the image was taken. Some images may even store GPS information so you can easily see where the images were taken!

All good stuff – but EXIF data can often take up a large amount of space inside the image file and may contain restricted data. Our report is automatically emailed to the Met Office after the report has finished.

Also specifically for the Met Office we have added an XML feed - a file of structured data that is frequently updated - of Sitemorse report scores. These will be used to generate graphs and other reports for use of setting and rewarding targets inside the Met Office.

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