With the recent new releases by Google and Yahoo concerning advances in crawling flash, we are very pleased to share this timely and very informative article by V7N SEO Blog guest author
S. Emerson of Accrete Web Solutions.

The web design and search engine optimization communities are a buzz in the last few days with an announcement that hit the news that it will now be possible to create search engine friendly flash files.

Google and Yahoo to Search Inside Flash Files

“Adobe announced Tuesday that Google and Yahoo are adding search capabilities that will enable users to look inside the content of files encoded in Adobe’s Flash file format SWF….”

Source: The New York Times July 1, 2008

Optimized Flash Player makes SWF Flash file format searchable by Google, Yahoo engines

“Adobe Systems Inc. today announced that an optimized Adobe Flash Player will be added to the search engines of Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. under agreements with the two Internet firms. The tool will help the search engines better index dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIA) that include the Flash file format, or Shockwave Flash (SWF)….”

“…As a result of the partnership between the three firms, pre-existing Flash-based RIAs, including content that loads at runtime, will be searchable without alteration by companies or developers, Adobe said. Google has added the optimized Flash Player to its site already, and its search engine will be able to access SWF files as of today. Yahoo plans to add the technology to a future update of Yahoo Search. A schedule for adding the technology to Yahoo wasn’t disclosed…”

Source: Computerworld July 1, 2008

Google has a post on their Webmaster Central blog about this news also, Google learns to crawl Flash, . They have also started answering questions in another post, Improved Flash Indexing. Pay particular attention to the question regarding current technical limitations before you get too excited about this new feature.

So how does this effect web design houses and website owners?

In the past, it was difficult to get a website built using Flash® indexed in the search engines. If you do a Google search on the topic, you will find ways to attempt to get a flash based website indexed. Now it appears these methods will no longer be required in the future.

With this partnership, now websites using Flash® will be indexed better almost immediately according to the post at Google and in the future with Yahoo, per the quote above from Computerworld.

What does this mean to website owners?

Your website, if it uses Flash®, will be indexed easier in Google and Yahoo. Note that this partnership is with only 2 of the millions of search engines and directories available on the Net. Yes, these two feed information to other search engines and directories, but what about those who are not in partnership with or are fed by these search indexes?

This news only tackles one of the problems of using Flash® in a website. There are still the issues of the download speed, usability and accessibility of Flash® that need to be addressed when you hire a designer who wants to build your website using Flash®. A qualified designer can tackle all of these issues, but, will your return on investment justify the expense of hiring such a designer?

S. Emerson
Accrete Web Solutions

Danny Sullivan looks back on SEW - and I do mean back. The post is tinged with regret, and who can blame him. It was his baby for so long.

What were Incisive thinking when they let Danny go? Will it go down in search history as one of the dumbest moves ever? Online tech media tends to revolve around personalities - so Incisive let possibly the biggest personality in search go into direct competition?

Astonishing.

Not that anyone is irreplaceable, but the value of the Danny Sullivan brand, if you will, is significant.

I also get a sense that there is a bit of tension between SEW and SEL. Danny, diplomatic as always, doesn’t say so. Just a hunch on my part, as I read between the lines…

“I’ve no doubt while both SEW and SEL evolve, there will be inevitable comparisons and rivalry. Rebecca Lieb wrote recently of SEW being the best site about search. I respectfully beg to differ, as Search Engine Land speeds along to be what I think is the best site about search. “

• SEO Playbook - excellent list of SEO resources from Stuntdubl
• Paid link -Landscape photos
• Google’s Web History Patent Applications
• Paid link - Tower Of Bears
• How to stop bad robots with honeypots.
• Paid link - Take Life Seriously
• Robots txt builder
• Paid link - The meaning of life.
• How to hide links, paid or otherwise.
• Paid Link - Learn To Sing.

• Danny Sullivan will eat himself. Amusing.
• Huge session coverage from SES, courtesy of Barry and friends.
• We feel fine. A project that gathers texts expressing human emotions from blogs.
• 15 year old prankster gets hundreds of videos removed from YouTube.
• Googleopoly.
• Google “We Own Your Identity” t-shirt.
• YouTube “very close” to filtering system, says Schmidt.
• Cookie based counting may overestimate audience size.

• Blogging still a minority sport. I’m surprised anyone is surprised. To most people, writing is a chore.
• Google Mail Vs Yahoo Mail. A comparison video. Gmail wins.
• Google has released a new version of Google Maps. They’re almost in 3D.
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• Ask to get a new algo, made up of old algos Teoma and Direct Hit.

• Google search market share. Still rising. If trends hold, Google’s share will pass the two thirds mark by August. In the same period, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Ask all lost share.
• MySpace annoy millions of users by banning Photobucket. Not a good move, really.
• A very good business analysis about why Google is the ultimate money making machine.
• “The Algorithm should find a new ad Agency”. More odd marketing from Ask.
• Googe discovers a click bot network.
• Demand for local search SEM on the rise. Apparently.
• In a related note, Google huge in verticals, too.
• Spock is a people search engine. Some people are excited.

• Barry is publishing his always-excellent SES conference coverage.
• Danny looks at how to use Twitter to generate traffic.
• Future Of Advertising Conference. We have five conference passes to give away to our readers. Just ask and you shall receive, until they’re all gone, of course Email me for details.
• Google’s next advertising deal - DirectTV. I reckon they should buy TiVo, and make it open source.
• Meanwhile, Viacom and Yahoo get together. Google won’t like that much.
• Google copies stuff. Apologies.

• Blogging code of conduct proposed. A waste of time. Will be argued about for a while, then filed in the same bin as “Ethical SEO Code Of Conduct”.
• Digg traffic is a bit rubbish. Digg vs Google traffic comparison.
• Google push their “Advertise On This Site” program with a new ad format. Encourages your visitors to become advertisers.
• Interesting Eric Schmidt (yes, another one) interview. Bits that stood out for me were plans for the enterprise and how the critics have it wrong on YouTube (part of the value of YouTube to Google is that YouTube drives search traffic).
• Why Google doesn’t impress Madison Avenue. Hmmm….I think it’s more likely that the rapid growth in online advertising, and decline in other advertising channels, will change the way Madison Avenue works.

• Eh? No way keyword-in-the-title-tag is the most important ranking factor. It’s not even necessary, especially if you happen to be Wikipedia.
• Clicktale heatmaps. Web stats that show you where on the screen your visitors are looking.
• Is social search the next paradigm? AOL’s programming director weighs in.
• Content isn’t king: turns out that Viacom’s content wasn’t that critical to YouTube anyway. People watch other stuff, mostly.
• Get a free directory link by finding a dead link. Fire up the spiders, boys and girls…
• High trust university domain names. Again, domain and linking scores trumps, say, the Title Tag.

• Good overview of Wordpress plugins for SEO.
• MySpace. Huge page views, revenue not so hot.
• Brevity is the new black. Twitter is text messaging made more interesting, and possibly useful.
• Web 2.0 is vulnerable to attack. JavaScript hijacking.
• An update on Google Spam reporting. Official Google Blog.
• Which content area should you target? Aaron looks at how to evaluate good niches for web publishing.
• The elements you need to have a  successful long-term web site.  Great post.