SE's reading Flash...

...impact on web design

[jackofalltrades]

Hi all

Just back from holiday and im not really getting into the swing of things at work, so i thought id start a new post! :)

I was thinking the other day there that SE's must be on the verge of being to able index flash content (i know some already do... FAST is it?).

My question is...

...what impact do you think that will have on web design and the SERP's (and internet marketing as a whole)?

When HTML editors became mass market, every man and his dog was able to easily build a website. Prior to this it was a predominately techie marketplace.

But now other professions are migrating into web design (im from a marketing background, as are many of you, and from other professions as well) as you dont really need to have a great technical knowledge to do it - you just need to be able to work well with computers.

IMHO, when the majority of SE's (OK, lets say it...the big G) start to index flash content, I think we will see more and more graphic design professionals turn to web design.

Right now, flash is a web design no-no, so designers using it blindly (ie, with no thought of useability, accessibility, SEO, etc) arent achieving the success that would encourage others to follow in their footsteps.

But, when flash content is indexed, it could hold the same weight as regular content, so more graphic designers will turn to developing sites using flash.

Now, dont get me wrong...im not graphic designer bashing here! ;) Its just that the web is a predominately visual medium and an influx of graphic designers armed with good flash skills would dramatically change the marketplace for a lot of us.

For web designers, we will have to compete with sites that actually look good (what a pain in the @ss thats gonna be! :)). First impressions count!

For SEO's, optimising flash sites will be more than ripping the flash out and replacing with HTML.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Or should i just go and do some work (and hone my flash skills....)? :)

JOAT

[korkus2000]

Or should i just go and do some work (and hone my flash skills....)?

Yes ;)

I think that process will be slow. People still load meta tags and fill comments with keywords. Old habits die slow. As Flash becomes SE friendly more sites will pop up. You would be surprized how many graphic designers jumped on the internet frenzy. As the bottom fell out they went back to the print arena. Flash becoming more SE friendly is not going to bring out the designers. The move to have print collateral online will.

Flash has its following. It also has its critics. Search engines are not the only reason people don't like Flash [webmasterworld.com]. It will take time to fix issues that designers have created by their blind usage of this tool.

[martinibuster]

people don't like Flash

I think that should read Webmasters.

Everyone from my brother in-law to prospective clients are asking for Flash. It's hard to get around it. The best I can do is convince someone to embed flash into an html document, like Hillman Curtis did on his own web site, and also for Adobe (!).

[mat_bastian]

I think that if MM Flash Search Engine SDK were to allow deep linking, Flash would be a legitimate E-comm solution. Flash is gonna be huge. FAST's inclusion of SDK, MM's hiring of Jakob Nielson, the greater part of the Flash building community migrating from intro's to interfaces and backend integration, I believe that I've read that the flash player is in 90+ percent of browsers, so less and less is there the extra step of a player download. Flash is positioned to be a force, like it or not. I just hope SE's recognize this and follow in FAST's footsteps.

[mat_bastian]

martini... I have noticed much the same response. Any real people that I talk to,(by real, I mean those who don't know what a SERP is) are in love with flash even if they don't know it's Flash. During a rant to my computer illiterate brother about business being a bit slow this time of year, he pointed to one of the high profile flash sites(can't url drop so I won't)and said, why don't you make people sites like that... it looks like a TV commercial and that's what people are used to.

you know what, I think he's right. As cool as it is to knock Flash, real people like it. Real people realize more than some webmasters do, that the web can be an entertaining place. Flash can help make it that.

[jackofalltrades]

>Real people realize more than some webmasters do, that the web can be an entertaining place. Flash can help make it that.

I agree with you in that there is so much potential for the web to develop into a more multimedia rich environment (without the problems of indexing, download time, accessability, etc, etc).

But at the same time i cant helping feeling slightly dissapointed and saddened that what begun having the potential to be a revoluntionary communciation and education tool is most likely to degenerate into the Idiot Box mk II. :)

I dread to think what advertising we will be subjected to when graphics are more easily (and quickly) downloaded!

Our TVs cut our programmes into segments in order to force advertising on us. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to have your surfing interupted every 15 minutes by a commercial? (and not being able to back click, right click, Alt F4, etc out of it....).

JOAT ;)

[mat_bastian]

I think the whole beauty and the major difference is that the common people still control the airwaves that are the web. Your website may be a library of reading, and that's fine. At the same time, mine might be an online entertainment system... fine as well. We make with it what we want to make of it. And if we take into account what non webmasters want it to be, we just might be able to make it profitable as well.

[Jon_King]

We have to remember that the web is the blending of academic and commercial information worlds. It's sort of like finding commercials at the city library.

If we look at the commercial world in other media, I think we would agree that Flash is FLASH and this kind of attention getting "WOW" drives many commercials. The "commercial web" is no different.

In academics Flash could be utilized as a teaching tool to visualize some things in a better way than words alone.

I think there is a significant role in the future web for Flash and believe it is here to stay.