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Google indexes swf files !…?…:(

Google indexes swf!!! I had trouble believing it when I saw this “news” from 2004.
(click here for reference if you haven’t heard.)

The reasons I am astonished are as following:
1. As a Flash developer, swf files are the only products we produce so far. If such thing existed three years ago, we should have known for at least two years and three hundred days by now.
2. Flash haters argue that swf files are not SEO (Search Engine Optimized) , so they prefer sites with javascript and/or other scripting languages over Flash sites. That is why we have been struggling so hard to make our sites SEO. Why hasn’t anybody told us this yet?

I googled the keyword”filetype:swf” and yes the news is true. Google does index swf files. No question there. Then how come we haven’t heard yet?

I think the major reason lies here: how Google indexes swf files is Google extracts text strings stored in the swf files and indexes them as the keywords. However we try to make content of sites dynamic by using external xml files to store the text strings. I don’t think Google indexes xml files well* yet, so all the content in xml files are “hidden” from Google spiders.   (* [added on September 11th,2007]As a test, I googled the keyword “inurl:budweiser.com  filetype:xml“, the result returned nothing however I know there are several xml files on the site for sure.)

You can see even swf files on large Flash sites such as budweiser.com which gets over 10,000 hits per day don’t get indexed. (Compare the search results of the keyword “filetype:swf site:www.budweiser.com” and keyword “filetype:swf“)

Then I clicked on the links Google provide when I search for “filetype:swf“. It showed the mere swf file, with no embedding html or any constraint. Because many swf files are designed to “fit the window”, they looked terribly scaled up in the browser window. Sorry Google but I think they look horrible when scaled up. Yucks. Do the users really want to see this? Or do the site owners really want to see this? I know I don’t like my site when it happens.

According to the news above, Macromedia made a program that extracts text strings and converts them to html page metadata. Obviously, it is one of Macromedia’s SEO attempts. But it is not as popular as other products from Macromedia/Adobe. I guess it is also because we love external xml files! ha.

So now we know Google indexes swf files. My recommendations to those who wanted to make Flash sites SEO but didn’t know what to do: create a huge textfield on the main timeline in your swf file somewhere off stage, and put all the keywords in there. To those who are concerned that their sites will look bad when users come from Google’s swf index, (like me), avoid putting meaningful words in the swf files and keep using external xml files. (Have you tried AS3 yet? The XML object is super in AS3!) Keep working hard, Adobe.

休斯顿的生活成本低-Houston offers a low cost of living

旻哥要去休斯顿出差啦。在网上找到一个pdf（Houston offers a low cost of living），休斯顿地区2007年第一季度的生活成本指数低于293个城市/地区平均值（100）11.9，而洛杉矶地区则高出平均值50.4。Wow!

又在网上找到一个Calculator, 结论是这样的：休斯顿比洛杉矶的平均生活成本低41.9%，而平均工资低9.1%。所以想攒钱应该去休斯顿！