Google indexes Flash: beta product, still not good for SEO

A few weeks ago Google announced that it can now extract and index textual content from Adobe Flash files. We all know that creating websites in pure Flash is a big no-no if you care about being found through search engines. So is there nothing left that’s stopping web designers from switching from plain old HTML and CSS to rich interactive Flash? I have yet to find somebody who agrees with a resounding “yes!”

Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz, believes that this new development isn’t compelling enough to start building sites with Flash.

Flash content is fundamentally different from HTML on webpage URLs and being able to parse links in the Flash code and text snippets does not make Flash search-engine friendly. I think it’s great that Google’s digging deeper into Flash, but I don’t believe web developers should be any less wary than they’ve been in the past about Flash-based websites or Flash-embedded content.

If anything, I commend Google for continuing to convince web designers and search engine marketers alike to embrace web standards by pushing for the best practices in coding websites. Of course it’s the most logical thing both parties: search spiders need to parse content properly so that they can index it, and a well-formed webpage makes this possible; webmasters need not wade through nested tables and unnecessary tag soup when there’s a better way. And Google should, since it’s way more influential than Opera or any other web company out there.

However, Google’s efforts to read Flash still seem to be in the premature stages. Typical Google, they always release their products in beta without being wary of the consequences.

By consequences I mean clients who are now running around telling their web designers to create animated intros and the extravagant interfaces for their websites. I can’t really shoot down this little achievement by Google—except that it’s getting scarily smarter everyday and should try to have more features than issues when they launch a product.

More importantly, I can only continue to condemn those who misuse Flash without any regard for accessibility, much less usability, whatsoever.

Flash goes Open Source; Are HTML/CSS coders doomed?

According to the latest episode from the Boagworld podcast, “you might be wasting your time designing with CSS” because now that Flash is open source, it’s “going to be everywhere and is the platform we should now be developing on”.

Flash versus CSS? What?

Let’s backtrack a bit. Adobe recently announced the Open Screen Project, which will implement a “consistent runtime environment” for Flash (and AIR) across all platforms. All, as in every medium imaginable: computers, mobile devices, TVs, and everything in between. Adobe working hand in hand with some of the biggest names in media and electronics to make this possible. For a company that’s always created proprietary technologies, moving to an open mindset is a bold move. But this will cement the popularity and innovativeness of Flash.

So how does Flash compete with CSS? We shouldn’t take the Flash vs. CSS part literally. It should be more like Flash vs. HTML and CSS. Or HTML and CSS and JavaScript. Wait, what about AJAX? And Silverlight?

See how silly this bout has become? All these web technologies are not direct competitors. (Except for Silverlight, perhaps, but I’m not even sure if it still stands a chance.)

But there’s a very real question being posed here. Should HTML/CSS coders move on to what seems to be the greener pasture that is Flash?

I firmly believe that not every website in the world has to be done in Flash for it to be jaw-droppingly awesome. There will be Flash developers who believe exactly the opposite. There will be hybrid web designers who can straddle between both and don’t really feel the pressure. Any of the three will prevail in the future, but from the looks of it right now, there’s still a place for plain old HTML and CSS no matter how big Flash has become.

Besides, both camps are still considerably immature. The web in general is, actually. It’s just that with all the effort spent into creating websites and the money that can be made from them, web technologies seem complete already. But they are just as dynamic and unpredictable as the web itself.