Flash Gets Searched

I'm obviously a few weeks late on this one, but I've been on vacation. (A computer-free, cell-phone-free vacation, I might add. Try it sometime - it's pretty incredible.)

Anyway, Flash is searchable, or at least Google has an algorithm for it. Adobe says in this article:

"Google has already begun to roll out Adobe Flash Player technology incorporated into its search engine."

This page outlines some details from Google's end. At the moment, they're only indexing text within a SWF file - not images or video. But the implications are huge.

I've acknowledged that the most reasonable criticism of Flash is the inability to search the content within it. That's been a huge limitation, and anyone that's trying to build a highly searchable site has avoided Flash for that reason alone. We'll have to see how valuable the search results are that are generated from Google's new algorithm, but that limitation is becoming irrelevant.

What's really huge about this is that the FlashPlayer "plug-in" has made another giant step toward transparency. This is (in part) Google and Yahoo admitting that Flash is a core means of transmitting information over the internet. If GooHoo is expecting to find Flash content, they're expecting end users to have it installed. It's a transparent medium - everyone expects that Flash content is viewable. When it's not, something is wrong. With the typical plug-in, the expectation is the opposite (that it's not installed), and that's even what you plan on.

Maybe you're more skeptical, and you think that this is just Adobe swooping in at the right moment, leveraging the GooHoo/Microsoft conflict to give FlashPlayer a (HUGE) leg up on Silverlight. Maybe Google and Yahoo aren't admitting anything about Flash as a core means of transmitting information. Guess what: it doesn't matter. Motives aside, FlashPlayer gains some huge ground not just as a plug-in, but as a platform.