SWF Files and Google

[savantcreative]

Do you think swf files will ever be able to be parsed by Google?
Thanks

[evride]

i doubt it will by the time this world ends which is of course Dec 21 2012. just use the swfObject and put text and links inside the "flashcontent" div to show if the visitor does not have the flash player. google should be able to read that fine.

[Cota]

Google, will at some point, have a spider that can read through swf's..just no ETA on that.

[Flash Gordon]

It seems like something Adobe should be promoting more than relying on Google to do it.

[Cota]

I totally agree..but adobe is happy with the way things are...

[asf8]

I think Google can already read text/links in SWF files to a limited extent.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/07/best-uses-of-flash.html

As many of you already know, Flash is inherently a visual medium, and Googlebot doesn't have eyes. Googlebot can typically read Flash files and extract the text and links in them, but the structure and context are missing. Moreover, textual contents are sometimes stored in Flash as graphics, and since Googlebot doesn't currently have the algorithmic eyes needed to read these graphics, these important keywords can be missed entirely. All of this means that even if your Flash content is in our index, it might be missing some text, content, or links. Worse, while Googlebot can understand some Flash files, not all Internet spiders can.

The new Image Rank by Google looks very interesting also... (not really about SWF files though)
http://www.www2008.org/papers/fp506.html
PDF - http://www.www2008.org/papers/pdf/p307-jingA.pdf

I agree this should be in the hands of Adobe or atleast a collaboration between Adobe and Google etc... and is long overdue.

[savantcreative]

I think Google can already read text/links in SWF files to a limited extent.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/07/best-uses-of-flash.html



The new Image Rank by Google looks very interesting also... (not really about SWF files though)
http://www.www2008.org/papers/fp506.html
PDF - http://www.www2008.org/papers/pdf/p307-jingA.pdf

I agree this should be in the hands of Adobe or atleast a collaboration between Adobe and Google etc... and is long overdue.

I agree with you. It also depends on one's marketing goals and whether it is an issue or not. If search is not an issue who cares? If it is, that is an entirely different goal.

Best regards