Indexable Flash Files

[jeffc]

TechCrunch is reporting on Adobe releasing a certain technology to Google and Yahoo so that flash files can be indexed. If flash were open source, then all search engines would of been able to do this a long time ago.

Something like this would of been great when Flash was cool. Now adays though, do you think this has any merit? Do any of you work with flash or flash based files that you think you'll look into making their content crawlable via the search engines?

[ahmed]

Flash has a lot of merit - especially in building interactive applications.

Read about this in the morning on Google's blog. This should give online marketers (a lot of them who are schooled in SEO and thus suspicious of Flash because it couldn't be indexed) more reason to build sticky, interactive apps that take advantage of Flash and the fact that we have high-speed Internet access widely available in most parts of the world.

There is a LOT that Flash can do - this should open up the possibilities a lot more.

[jeffc]

I agree, there is alot flash can do and Youtube is a shining example of what flash is capable of. Just one example mind you. However, I think it sucks in a way that the format is fully licensed by Adobe and they get to decide who crawls what with their new secret sauce.

Does anyone else find it funny that Windows Live search was left out of the mix?

[silverlady56]

That's for sure that now flash files are being indexed! Recently the problem was that flash doesn't distinguish text blocks and graphics and compiles all the layers in a way they build a single file. But now a flash plug-in exists that allows to ascribe to your flash files desirable meta info. free flash mp3 players