Archive notice: This article was originally published on July 2, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Adobe announced today, Tuesday, that it is working with Google and Yahoo to provide more comprehensive search results for dynamic web content. Adobe is supplying search-engine operators with optimized Flash Player technology that the company says enables better indexing of content in the SWF Flash file format. This is intended to make millions of rich internet applications (RIAs) and other dynamic Flash-based web offerings more accessible for inclusion in internet searches and therefore easier for users to find. Google has already implemented expanded searching of text content, and developers do not even need to modify their Flash content.
Until now, search engines could index the content of Flash offerings only to a very limited extent, a problem shared by other rich-internet technologies such as Microsoft Silverlight and Java. Although static text in SWF files could be captured, important dynamic content remained inaccessible to search operators’ web crawlers. This does not meet Web 2.0 requirements. “Some companies now build their websites entirely in Flash,” Adobe spokesperson Alexander Hopstein told pressetext. The optimized technology now promises to make more web content in Flash visible to crawlers and ultimately to search-engine users. Google is already using the technology in conjunction with the market leader’s own development work.
According to Google’s Webmaster Central blog, Google Search now captures all dynamic text content from SWF files that visitors to a website can see. The expanded indexing of Flash web offerings takes place automatically; web developers do not need to change the SWF files. Images, however, are not currently captured. “If you want Google to ignore less informative content such as copyright or loading notices, consider replacing the text with an image,” the blog therefore states. On ordinary HTML pages, code can instruct crawlers to ignore individual parts of a web offering during indexing. It is also possible to prevent an SWF file from being indexed entirely. However, selectively restricting search for individual sections within a Flash offering is not currently possible, Google told pressetext.
Yahoo, the world’s second-largest search provider behind Google, plans to implement expanded searching of Flash content in a forthcoming update. It remains unclear whether and when other search providers such as AOL, Ask.com and Microsoft will also offer enhanced Flash search using Adobe technology. “We intend to broaden the availability of this capability,” Adobe said, without providing further details. Competition in rich internet technology is not standing still either. Microsoft told pressetext that expanded search indexing for Silverlight is definitely planned. Details could potentially be announced at the Worldwide Partner Conference taking place in Houston next week.
