New Google Algorithm For Flash Options

[cre8pc]

Press release

Google learns to crawl FLASH

Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites. Recently, we've improved the performance of this Flash indexing algorithm by integrating Adobe's Flash Player technology.

In the past, web designers faced challenges if they chose to develop a site in Flash because the content they included was not indexable by search engines. They needed to make extra effort to ensure that their content was also presented in another way that search engines could find.

Now that we've launched our Flash indexing algorithm, web designers can expect improved visibility of their published Flash content, and you can expect to see better search results and snippets. There's more info on the Webmaster Central blog about the Searchable SWF integration.

Q: What are the current technical limitations of Google's ability to index Flash?
There are three main limitations at present, and we are already working on resolving them:

1. Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed.
2. We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file.
3. While we are able to index Flash in almost all of the languages found on the web, currently there are difficulties with Flash content written in bidirectional languages. Until this is fixed, we will be unable to index Hebrew language or Arabic language content from Flash files.

We're already making progress on these issues, so stay tuned!

[eKstreme]

This caught my eye:

Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript.

So does that mean GBot will execute some types of JS but not others? We've seen GBot request JS files, and we've seen it request CSS files. So is Google telling us here that this behaviour is not a bug?

Queue looks and comments of suspicion from Pierre...

[saschaeh]

wonder how much it will change the ranking landscape.

[lee.n3o]

wonder how much it will change the ranking landscape.

The question is how much will it change the 'BLACK HAT' scene... Its very easy to show/hide dozens upon dozens of layers in Flash and justify it because its an long animation (And you have to hide the layers to make it work!).

[Nadir]

Hmm, now I can remove the part in my CV that says "improve the indexability of Flash sites".

[DCrx]

It's unclear whether this changes reading the Flash file as one big page, when many sites optimize for different keywords on different pages.

[dazzlindonna]

Looking for some rankings shakeups.

[iamlost]

The following makes sense:
Adobe boosts Flash media search with Google and Yahoo!
* Adobe can not afford to have AIR RIAs (rich internet applications) excluded from SE results.
* The SEs can not afford to pass up Flash (and AIR) advertising opportunities.
so Adobe offers a special SE 'reader'.

And Microsoft (and Silverlight) go sulk in the corner, alone, again.

All for the benefit of the 'user'.
Of course.

[bobbb]

Seems like Adobe will make Flash crawlable

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/go...amp;newsLang=en

[iamlost]

Three exceptional good questions from Receptional at Webmasterworld:

Q1. So will that mean that every site that created an HTML version of their flash content now find they have Dupe content issues?

Q2. What happens when a whole site is one big flash file... presumably that will end up as one big "page" on Google, so will Google does over compensate in favour of Flash files? Or will the content message get blurred? I assume the latter and thus good flash design still plays a part?

Q3. The article suggests Google has already started to implement this. Anyone seeing SWF pages jumping into the results?

What I really like about fora is the varying perspectives.

While I had been wondering about the duplicate content potential (as it would apply to some competitors but not to me as I use scant Flash and only for limited effect) and was hoping: (1) it would rear it's ugly head and (2) no one would mention it so I might have a competitive advantage...

...the consequences of one site as one Flash file had not been something I had thought about. There are currently a number of sites that could be serious contenders if they weren't one big Flash file and currently not registering in the SERPs.

Sigh.
Perhaps another worrystone?

[swainzy]

From Cnet:

Q: How will the search experience change as a result?

A: The text that people see when they interact with Flash files, such as captions and introductions, will now be used when Google generates a snippet that appears below the URL on the search results page. The words that appear in the Flash files can now be used to match query terms in Google searches. In addition, the URLs that appear in Flash files will be fed into Google's crawling system and be indexed.

Overall, more content will be indexed and search engine result rankings will change to reflect the additional content and its relevance. The snippets will give better information about the page on the search results. You can also expect search engine optimizers to figure out ways to improve rankings of Flash-based Web sites just like they do with HTML-based sites.

[kichus]

One of the main drawback I feel about Fully Flash websites is lacking inner pages. The whole content will be shown under the same URL, even though the user experiences multiple pages as the interactive navigation. We can't promote flash inner pages individually as there is no URL for them.

How much they are improved on understanding the navigational structure from a fully flash website?

[AbleReach]

Li Evans has a REALLY good article on the Flash thing.

Google Can Now Read Flash? Just Don't Jump For Joy Yet

In short, Google can read it, but may not understand it. Think of the worst scenarios that can come up with looking at non-Flash sites. The same and more still apply.

[iamlost]

John Andrews has yet another perspective:
Is it Time to Block Flash for SEO Purposes?

What I find interesting is that once one reads past the 'announcement' the webdev thinkers are really saying 'oh look, a new can of worms'. Somehow, I don't think that was what Google/Yahoo/Adobe were expecting.

Fortunately, as a non-Flash particpant, I get to stand on the sidelines critiqueing everyone.

[Thejspot]

I think I agree with all the commentators who are saying "Don't get too excited yet". Google needs to say it can read flash before anyone else or they're not the best right?

Will it dramatically change the landscape of rankings? Probably not at this stage. If you think about most of the kinds of sites that use flash (designers, graphics, fashion) they generally don't have a tonne of word content anyway so I don't think we're going to see massive flash sites take over the top spots in Google. Content is but one of many factors that effect ranking.

I imagine that there will be some algorithm changes that the clever people on this site will be looking for, and just like when Pagerank dropped again, and again, and we stopped relying on it in SEO about 4 years ago, so too will we crack this one.

Ho hum. Just another day I say.

[Joshua Sciarrino]

The day google crawls images and can understand it. I think I'll wet myself.

I never thought of Adobe's problems. I only thought of flash from two perspectives. Google (SE's) and the client/users.

I bet Adobe is enjoying this new development and it makes since on why they worked with both yahoo and google to get this situated.