SEO: Adobe Flash, Google, and Yahoo

Search engines already index static text and links within SWF (Shockwave Flash) files.  However, Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and dynamic Web content have been generally difficult to fully expose to search engines because of their changing states. 

Adobe is providing Google and Yahoo with advanced Flash Player technology in order to enable the search engines to index the Flash content and information.  This technology will allow the search engines to capture all the data (including dynamic data) for a more relevant indexing.  It would effectively mimic a human interacting with the RIAs' content to discover all that is present inside the application. 

This means that websites and developers can now use Flash without extensive efforts to develop alternative site content to ensure proper search engine indexing. 

While this will not make HTML and Flash equal in search engine optimization overnight, it will allow for RIAs to eventually compete equally with regular HTML content in the near future.  In fact, Google has started to roll out its new indexing components and has been working extensively for some time to improve Flash content indexing.

The best news of all, nothing has to be done by developers to see the benefits of the improvement of their current websites in search result placement and quality.  One can now feel free to continue to develop RIAs using the Flash Player technology and know that they'll not suffer in Search Engine Optimization.