Rich Internet Applications (RIA) have been around for a while, but they've always had one major flaw: search engine optimization.
TechCrunch has a story about fixing this Achilles heel. [emphasis added]
Adobe has created a special Flash player for the search engines that acts like a virtual user going through each application. It actually goes through the runtime of each Flash application and translates it into something the search engines can understand. So all of those fancy interactive Flash Websites and other rich Internet applications that have been invisible to search engines, can now be seen by them.
Basically, the problem is that search engines can't "see" inside of a Flash file, called an SWF. The cool kids pronounce it as "swiff."
Macromedia/Adobe has been working on this problem for a while now.
In my heyday of working in Flash (1998-2004), one of the kludges was to include all the text in meta tags and comments on the HTML page the Flash creator automatically generated.
So, it surprises me to hear that, after all this time, the best Adobe could do was to create a player application that "acts like a virtual user going through each application."
You would think that a better approach would be to generate an index file when the SWF file gets generated and give it a standard naming convention so search engines could easily find it.
In other words, Foo.swf would reside in the same directory as Foo.index.xml.
And yes, XML would be the ideal format for the index file.
Work to Do
Michele Turner, Adobe VP, says "Google is already rolling out the SWF-indexing technology, while Yahoo still 'has some work to do.'"
Presumably, the Flash player in question doesn't render graphic content and uses the code to simulate user activity.
But is simulating user activity really the best approach?
It seems a bit brute force to me.
You have to wonder what the extra load on the search engines' servers will be.
Why not distribute the processor load across all the content creator's machines rather than at the server level?
Clever, But Not in the Way You'd Expect
Obviously, I'm a fan of Silverlight.
That having been said, this seems to me to more of a business strategy move for Adobe, rather than what's good for the users and creators of RIA sites.
Adobe can now claim that "Flash files are indexable"
Limiting that ability to Flash rather than opening it up to all RIA platforms gives Adobe a competitive edge.
Deja Vu All Over Again
There's nothing stopping Microsoft from releasing their own search engine player, but then it's up to each individual search engine company to add it.
Seems like a lot of effort for the search engine companies and increased load on their systems.
With effort comes cost and each RIA vendor will have to "convince" the search providers to add their player.
It sounds a lot like the plug-in mess of Web 1.0.
Except this time, the battle is in the server room.
[found via ForgetFoo]