I’ve come across WriteMaps, through Ajaxian. It’s basically a tool for creating site maps visually. It uses jQuery to create a very easy to use interface. There are two modes for working with a site map - branch chart and a standard indented list. Each page is represented with an icon, and additional descriptive information can be stored for each page by clicking the “i” mini-button on the icon.

The tool offers many ways to export the map, for example as an XML file, which is great when you want to use the newly designed site structure in some other application. Every map can be saved on the server, and it’s accessible from anywhere online. Maps can also be shared so collaboration is available for larger scale projects where there are more people involved. Here are some of the features supported in the 1.0 version, released in early November:

• Sharing (Editable and View-Only)
• Print Formatting
• XML Sitemap Export
• New Outline View
• Source Import / Export
• Edit and Presentation Modes
• Contextual Undo / Redo
• Page Url and Notes Fields
• Save / Save As
• Deleting Sitemaps
• Help Content
• Increased Browser Support

They have a FAQ section and a blog for up-to-date information about everything concerning the service. Sign-up is very easy and takes literally a minute, while the tool itself is quite browser and processor intensive, so I’d recommend not opening too many tabs at the same time. While WriteMaps supports collaboration, I’d still use it for smaller projects for now, maybe up to about a hundred pages. It can be a great companion when recording an idea about a site structure on the road. You can later export the map and put it in a mind manager application for more detailed idea development. I would like to see some more advanced features in the future, like the ability to drag pages and rearrange the hierarchy using the mouse (click and drag). Adding features such as these shouldn’t be a problem. Also, maybe a plug-in for graphing interlinking between the pages, and indicators showing a page’s internal incoming/outgoing link ratio. Yes, this may be more SEOish than development, but SEO must be integrated in development if a site is to achieve anything on the search engines.

Anyway, a nice and easy to use tool, and best of all it’s free. Bookmarked!

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