Google searching within Flash

Gordon · 07-09-2006 04:50PM #1

Since when did Google start searching within Flash.swf files? I just did a search and found a hyperlink to my site that I had put inside a .swf file on someone elses site. The google result gives the result as it does with PDFs - ie [FLASH] result link::

Has this been going on for a while and I'm out of touch or is it a new thing?

aidan_walsh · 07-09-2006 05:28PM

Nah, its been happening a while, AFAIK. Pretty popular interview about it here.

Flash developers, don't get too excited. It only indexes full URLs (iirc) so it still won't be able to index your entirely Flash built site properly.

Rollo Tamasi · 07-09-2006 08:36PM

can google index xml files? if it can then flashers can use xml to store content and for menu purposes

Gordon · 07-09-2006 11:21PM

aidan_walsh wrote:

Flash developers, don't get too excited.

Bet you loved typing that!

Interesting though, I've never seen a flash result on Google.

Eoin · 08-09-2006 10:00AM

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

can google index xml files? if it can then flashers can use xml to store content and for menu purposes

Yep, there's a specific format that they can index:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/protocol.html

Laslo · 10-09-2006 03:36AM

My mate Anthony is a fairly well learned conduit for information pertaining to Flash content visiblility (and particularly accessibility) so he'd be worth contacting if you want to know more about the extensibility of Flash on the wider web... and he's very approachable - http://www.cisnky.com/

Google searching within Flash

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