Earlier this month Adobe Systems, Inc., the makers of the Flash video development software, gave Google and Yahoo the ability to search and index Flash websites. Google took it one step further by developing  an algorithm that “explores Flash files in the same way that a person would, by clicking buttons, entering input, and so on. Our algorithm remembers all of the text that it encounters along the way, and that content is then available to be indexed”.

What does this mean for the website owner? This latest development gives Flash websites a chance to compete online with their non-Flash counterparts.

Exactly what will Google index? Here is the lowdown according to Google’s Official Webmaster Central Blog:

• Google can index textual content in SWF files of all kinds. This includes Flash “gadgets” such as buttons or menus, self-contained Flash websites, and everything in between.
• If your website contains Flash, the textual content in your Flash files can be used when Google generates a snippet for your website. Also, the words that appear in your Flash files can be used to match query terms in Google searches.

However, there are still limitations to the kinds of Flash files Google will index. For example:

• If the Flash files include only images, Google still will not be able to see or index any text within the image.
• Google can’t index FLV files (videos that appear on YouTube) since these files do not contain text.
• If the Flash file loads through JavaScript, Google still may not be aware of the Flash file.
• If a Flash file loads an HTML, XML, or another SWF file, Google will separately index that resource, but it will not consider it to be a part of the content within the Flash file.

So there you have it. Flash websites will no longer be lost in the depths of search results.