Google (gasp!) welcomes Flash to its index

Following years of second-class citizen status, Flash content is now being welcomed into Google’s index.  A post on the Official Google Blog introduced the algorithm update (the wording indicates that it is currently live) and a second post on the Google Webmater Central blog presented list of anticipated questions and answers.

From the announcement post:

Now that we’ve launched our Flash indexing algorithm, web designers can expect improved visibility of their published Flash content, and you can expect to see better search results and snippets.

This is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, but there’s still a good deal of ground to cover.  While .SWF files will be indexed, it will only be for text content contained within the .SWF file.  Content that is pulled in by a .SWF for presentation as opposed to be included in the .SWF will be indexed separately.

As it is described in the Q&A post, the code which parses Flash files will essentially be acting like a user.

We’ve developed an algorithm that explores Flash files in the same way that a person would, by clicking buttons, entering input, and so on. Our algorithm remembers all of the text that it encounters along the way, and that content is then available to be indexed.

There are obvious limitations to overcome, in my mind specifically with the inability to index dynamic content (content pulled in from a database or external XML file), but this is a big move in the right direction, and its been a long time coming.

Thanks to Chris ‘Ubergeek’ Hill for emerging from vacation long enough to pass this info along.