If you didn’t know, the accessibility of flash is (or has thus far been) significantly less than that of standard HTML. If you knew that, did you know that there have been some advancement in the ability for search engines (Google) to read and index flash?

Well, don’t take this news as the definitive green light to go 100% flash just yet. There are quite a few considerations before replacing your HTML with flash and the “advancements” are just that—steps in the right direction. We’re not there yet and I suspect in the end, there will always be some limitations.

Google recently reported on the progress that they’ve made in crawling flash files - “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…”

No question, this is great news. The ability to search and index flash files offers a significantly greater range of flexibility in building and presenting web content. There is still more progress to be made (a great deal more), but the hard and fast flash vs. html argument is starting to change. Some of the pull quotes from Google below highlight the limitations, which for my preferences, still leaves flash as strictly supplemental media and not a platform for mission critical content delivery.

“…if your Flash application contains links . . . Google may now be better able to discover and crawl more of your website.”

This MAY be a matter of semantics, but the comment “…Google may now be better able…” leads me to believe that indexing links in flash files is still on the horizon and not a here-and-now ability.

“If you prefer Google to ignore your less informative content, such as a “copyright” or “loading” message, consider replacing the text within an image, which will make it effectively invisible to us.”

I’m not pointing this comment out to support the flash issue, but to reiterate the limitations of some forms of media on your website. When Google uses the term “effectively invisible” and your ultimate goal is visibility, then you should examine your site for needless and/or replaceable images that contain key content for your site.

“Googlebot does not execute some types of JavaScript. So if your web page loads a Flash file via JavaScript, Google may not be aware of that Flash file, in which case it will not be indexed.”

There are tremendous advantages to using a JavaScript loading function for flash, including flash player version compatibility or availability, cross-browser functionality, speed, and more.

“We currently do not attach content from external resources that are loaded by your Flash files. If your Flash file loads an HTML file, an XML file, another SWF file, etc., Google will separately index that resource, but it will not yet be considered to be part of the content in your Flash file.”

Separately indexing loaded resources sounds pretty nebulous. Delivering content via XML tuns flash into a living and useful tool. The value of this content comes when presented as a whole not as disparate singular bits of information. Regarding loaded SWF files, this cuts the legs out from under the CMS (content management system) functionality of flash - think of a slideshow or presentation like powerpoint slides. The back-end CMS access to the flash file offers a practical way to manage and contribute content to a web site. Now, I’ve recommended and used flash for this purpose well before search engines suggested indexing the information—so in nothing has changed. I’ll continue to use and recommend it, but when that content is fully accessible, then we’re really getting there.

Back to the question of using flash vs. HTML for content delivery. Today’s verdict: HTML is still king. But keep your eyes on news as it develops. Your flash should slowly gain more mileage as Google and the search industry marches forward race to index flash.

About the author: Dominic Taverniti, owner of Applied Web Vitals, is a web design and development professional with clients throughout the U.S. and abroad. Dominic was recently honored with a Webby Award nomination for work on the Eyes On Darfur website, an Amnesty International special project.