Last month Google, Yahoo and Adobe announced a cooperation to make Flash search engine indexable. Or at least, somewhat search engine friendly. Google made a similar claim around 2004. Google announced at that time their ability to index selectable text content in flash .swf files. For awhile swf files receieved placement in serps but I cant remember the last time I saw one.

This latest announcement states that Google and Yahoo will be able to index ONLY the root swf file. If the swf file loads external files, such as other swf files, text documents, videos, search will be unable to access and index them. Why does this matter? Well, most large flash sites load external files only as needed to reduce overall flash load times and create a better experice for the visitor. So most large flash sites or online services are made up of many different flash files.

So, the next question is why can’t these search engines index all the files?
I always figured that the real issue is a question of code ownership. You see, the only way google can make real sense of what is contained in a flash file is if it decompiles the entire Flash file. Now suppose you have some proprietary code in a flash file that is core to your business or protects user data, I know I wouldn’t want anyone, search engine or not, peeking through this code.

So what does all of this mean? I think it means we are one step closer to seeing an SEO friendly flash, but I do not think this will change the nature of SEO.

Heres hoping the prove me wrong.