Google indexing Flash files?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by RH78, Jan 26, 2007.

  1. #1
    I know before that it was said that the search engines do not crawl or index flash. Then there was talk about how the SE technology was moving to a point where they could. Today, as I was looking at the index of my site through Google, I found this:

    [FLASH]
    "
    File Format: Shockwave Flash
    "
    www.travelresorts.com/gb_directions.swf - Similar pages

    (sorry, my screen capture software expired - trial version), but this is what was indexed.


    Anyone seeing this or I am just really behind and need to catch up?


    Thanks!!
     
    RH78, Jan 26, 2007 IP
  2. thegypsy

    thegypsy Peon

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  3. RH78

    RH78 Peon

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    #3
    Thanks for the references, it cleared some stuff up. But my main concern is that I will have to add the .swf files in the robots.txt file. There are only 4 .swf across the site, but I never included them in the robots.txt file because I didn't worry about them being indexed. If the SEs are starting to index them, then I guess I have to use more caution and clean some stuff up.
     
    RH78, Jan 26, 2007 IP
  4. banless

    banless Peon

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    #4
    Google has gottne alot better at this, they can now index just about any kind of file. They will even show some of them as google backlinks, I saw this in a few site where .swf and .pdf were showing up as google backlinks and some of them even have some pretty good page rank, the sky is no longer unreachable these days.
     
    banless, Jan 26, 2007 IP
  5. john269

    john269 Notable Member

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    #5
    If that's the case then I will have to use a robots.txt file also. I wouldn't want people to go directly to the file itself, I want them to go directly to the site that the file is displayed on.
     
    john269, Jan 26, 2007 IP
  6. paidhosting

    paidhosting Peon

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    #6
    nothing new, 1 year back my .swf were always indexed by google, and today google indexes almost everything on my site its like sitting on my site all the time .
     
    paidhosting, Jan 26, 2007 IP