4
Jul
2008
Google & Yahoo are ready to search Flash files
It is about time someone in Adobe stood up and fixed the oldest disadvantage in Flash. Finally, Google and Yahoo caches will be able to adequately parse the contents of SWF Flash files and retrieving text values from graphically advanced objects.
Developers such as my self who are boggled by Flash capabilities and at the same time annoyed by the disadvantages of setting up a highly functional webpage only to face the inevitability of fighting browsers and client settings were forced to find other means of providing the infamous crawlers with the content that could not be retrieved from the compiled Flash executable.
Here are some facts that one might find interesting:
1. The new improvement can be applied to every version of the SWF format. [Both old and new].
2. Developers do not need to modify their existent project to make the content more searchable, the information will be available at the get go.
3. Google has already began the rollout process of the new searchable SWF capability.
4. At the moment the searching capabilities only affects the text base interior of the SWF file. Currently there is no logic that focuses on the graphical [images] aspect of the infrastructure.
Overall the new changes spell faster, better search results when it comes to working with flash. The long despised draw back can finally be forgotten and a new age of vibrant high dimensional applications is waiting to make their mark on the web.
