Google reads my flash animation...!

Is this new?

[wattsnew]

Google lists a .swf file amongst site:mysite.com listings as [flash] with a title and description from animated text in that file. The text appears nowhere as HTML.

Is flash "index-ible" now? (I have never left a page with flash only on it)

Note however, the URL given does not relate it to the page where it appears ( mysite/images/flash.swf ).

[rocknbil]

Do you export it using the publish command? If you do, look in the source of your page for

<-- words used in the movie . . . . -->
<-- urls used in the movie . . . . -->

It's likely it's picking it up from there, but if not, cool, I've heard rumors the engines are actually reading flash.

[wattsnew]

..."look in the source of your page for

<-- words used in the movie . . . . -->
<-- urls used in the movie . . . . --> "

No, none of that on the page.

A different .swf on the site with text is indexed but does not have the text used in the Google SERP. Also animated .GIFs with text are not indexed.

Nipping over to a G image search for site: mysite there are no .SWF files indexed.

[tbear]

To recap.....
I believe Googly has been 'reading' .swf files for some time.
Does it look like it (or links and text in it) have been 'indexed'?

[whoisgregg]

G doesn't consider flash files as part of "image search." You'll see swf files float in and out the SERPs, but it's incredibly rare to see them ranking well. It's generally "site:" searches that reveal them.

The listings will show text snippets from the file itself but (as regularly pointed out here) you just can't depend on any search engine to get real meaning from a flash file.

As far as animated gifs (and any bitmap graphic file) I predict it's only a matter of time before G uses the same OCR technology it developed for Google Catalogs and applies it to web graphics. But that's just conjecture. :)

[cooldoug]

Yes, your flash is indexed as an image now.:)

[whoisgregg]

cooldoug, are you seeing .swf results in Google Image search? I've not run across these. Very interesting if Google has relegated all flash content away from web/content to image. :)