JavaScript, Flash and Google
There is a lots of rumors that Google starts indexing of Adobe Flash files that are created with great JavaScript SWFObject.
In a case that you are not using SWFObject here is short official explanation of library use:
“SWFObject is a small Javascript file used for embedding Adobe Flash content. The script can detect the Flash plug-in in all major web browsers (on Mac and PC) and is designed to make embedding Flash movies as easy as possible. It is also very search engine friendly, degrades gracefully, can be used in valid HTML and XHTML 1.0 documents, and is forward compatible, so it should work for years to come.”
Code example:
<script type="text/javascript" src="swfobject.js"></script>
<div id="flashcontent">
This text is replaced by the Flash movie.
</div>
<script type="text/javascript">
var so = new SWFObject("movie.swf", "mymovie", "400", "200", "8", "#336699");
so.write("flashcontent");
</script>
Lets reveal that mystery…
Experiment is created with Adobe Flash CS3 and published for Flash Player 9 and ActionScript 2.0
November 13th
Finally we have some news and I am glad that news is good!
Google just indexed content of .swf file that is generated with JavaScript Object script.
Here you can list indexed flash file.
November 13th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
These experiments are great! I was wondering if you could go a little more in depth into this experiment. Is it the text within the swf that is being indexed, or the text within the flashcontent div? If swf, how is the text handled? Dynamic text? Static text?
November 13th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Hi Mike,
text was in .SWF file in static field. In this experiment we tried to detect can Google execute JavaScript that initialize Adobe Flash and can Google index that SWF.
More info how Google index content inside Flash will be able to find in other experiments like JavaScript, Flash and Google
December 15th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
When using a script like SWFObject, can Google be instructed NOT to index the Flash, but rather the alternative content? Anywhere I use Flash I give non-Flash users full parity in the alternative content, and I would much rather Google index the alternative content.
I’ve been scared away from using Flash lately because of all this mystery about the Google algorithm, and then I found your site! Fantastic site, keep up the good work!
March 23rd, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I second Josh. What if we don’t want google to decompile our swf and index things that it’s not supposed to? What if we made flash application and not a web site…?
March 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 pm
If you don’t want that mr Google index your swf I think the best way is to disallow it in robots.txt or meta tag on that page
April 15th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Wow man, this experiments rock. I’ve been using Flash for years now and was starting to lean more on jquery based sites, but I’m going back baby!