Comments on: Google Indexing Flash – Don’t Party Just Yet

By: polyGeek

polyGeek — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 12:55:47 +0000

I’ve started an experiment – Fleximagically.com – to test out a lot of the questions you raised here by creating a WordPress blog with a Flex/Flash interface. It still uses the same WordPress Admin on the backend but the view to the visitor is all in the Flash player.
I’m hopeful that in the coming months we’ll know a lot more about just how Flash sites will be indexed. I’ll be sharing the things that I discover on my blog.

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:38:55 +0000

Interesting article. I’d have to say there are way too many bad uses of Flash on the web. The key is using it appropriately and correctly. Yes, Google has been able to index the content in Flash for some time now but only text which has been embedded/hard-coded. It hasn’t been able to index any dynamic content including images, which I believe is one of the new main features.
But as you’ve said it will be interesting to see whether it will recognise the various markup and give them the same values.
When bringing in dynamic content into Flash (which is the way I do 90%+ of the time) you certainly are able to use a fair amount of markup and their presentation can be controlled via external style sheets. Heading tags, lists, bold, italic, underline, anchors/links and images can all be used in dynamic html text boxes in Flash.
This would still be no reason to create a full site in Flash if it can be done otherwise, but it does allow for more control where block(s) of text may be required in Flash elements.
Even with this new indexing ability I’m not certain two identical sites, one in Flash and one without, would get the exact same treatment. Nonetheless, it’s still a step forward for Flash content.

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:02:15 +0000

I sure hope you’re right. Designers seem driven to do 100% Flash when all then need to do is animate one tiny quadrant of the page.

By: Mihaela Lica

Mihaela Lica — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 05:43:51 +0000

Google has been indexing flash sites since many years now – what you probably mean is that they are now able to index them better, to actually “read” their content. SEO for flash will keep the same patterns as before, although personally I don’t see hwy people will go on creating 100% flash based sites when the web development technology today is so advanced that a web page can practically include everything from flash, video, complex graphics, custom widgets and certainly text. Flash is pretty for sites that need special effects, it is also nice for image galleries and for ecards… but not for business sites.

By: Yannis

Yannis — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:50:48 +0000

Great article. It’s going to be interesting how Google will compare, a site with mostly text and one with Flash. Flash has its used, but mainly visual, not for information. Hopefully you won’t see a Flash Blog any time soon, or…