A few weeks ago Google announced that it can now extract and index textual content from Adobe Flash files. We all know that creating websites in pure Flash is a big no-no if you care about being found through search engines. So is there nothing left that’s stopping web designers from switching from plain old HTML and CSS to rich interactive Flash? I have yet to find somebody who agrees with a resounding “yes!”
Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz, believes that this new development isn’t compelling enough to start building sites with Flash.
Flash content is fundamentally different from HTML on webpage URLs and being able to parse links in the Flash code and text snippets does not make Flash search-engine friendly. I think it’s great that Google’s digging deeper into Flash, but I don’t believe web developers should be any less wary than they’ve been in the past about Flash-based websites or Flash-embedded content.
If anything, I commend Google for continuing to convince web designers and search engine marketers alike to embrace web standards by pushing for the best practices in coding websites. Of course it’s the most logical thing both parties: search spiders need to parse content properly so that they can index it, and a well-formed webpage makes this possible; webmasters need not wade through nested tables and unnecessary tag soup when there’s a better way. And Google should, since it’s way more influential than Opera or any other web company out there.
However, Google’s efforts to read Flash still seem to be in the premature stages. Typical Google, they always release their products in beta without being wary of the consequences.
By consequences I mean clients who are now running around telling their web designers to create animated intros and the extravagant interfaces for their websites. I can’t really shoot down this little achievement by Google—except that it’s getting scarily smarter everyday and should try to have more features than issues when they launch a product.
More importantly, I can only continue to condemn those who misuse Flash without any regard for accessibility, much less usability, whatsoever.
The Opera Web Standards Curriculum is a comprehensive online course that teaches you standards-based web design. This includes not only coding in the web’s foundational languages, HTML, CSS, Javascript, but also design theory.
One of the authors, Chris Heilmann, describes it as “probably the most thorough and up-to-date web standards curriculum on the web”. He writes:
During the whole course the main focus is on usability, accessibility and writing maintainable code. We deliberately left out browser hacks and backward facing solutions and build on the ideas of progressive enhancement and unobtrusive JavaScript.
I must also point out that WSC is part of Opera Education, an initiative that pushes for web standards awareness and enthusiasm for the internet industry, specifically in schools and universities. I think it’s important for these two parties—browser software makers and educational institutions—to work together rather than apart in developing the Web. In this regard, Molly Holzschlag believes the course is an A+:
The impressive aspect of the curriculum as it is now is that it’s comprehensive, including foundational topics such as Internet and Web history and evolution. Educators understand that history provides context for real learning. Sadly, this is an area often not available in books and online tutorials because readers typically want to dive right in and learn a given technique.
It’s difficult to find a course that focuses solely on creating things through the internet. It’s almost always integrated with either graphic design (see MTV Engine Room) or computer science. Because of this, there is no focus on employing the best practices in creating beautiful, functional websites. And it will continue to be that way—all the way into the workplace—without those two entities joining forces.
This is why I continue to admire Opera. (Mozilla does, too.) It pushes projects that are interesting and beneficial to the web community. Here’s another example: Opera Dragonfly. Firefox’s FireBug wasn’t created by Mozilla (although Safari’s Debugger is a native feature).
And unlike other browser vendors out there, Opera shows it cares about web standards not by saying but by doing.
Update (June 14, 2008): Victor says his project, vi.sualize.us, has been around longer than the sites I’ve mentioned here. So, again, this is another image bookmarking site worth checking out.
I smell a web trend. In the last few weeks I’ve discovered two new image bookmarking sites in addition to the insanely famous but still exclusive FFFFOUND!—We heart it and typeish.
To those who are asking “but why?”, normal bookmarking services aren’t visual in nature. Whether it’s social bookmarking like del.icio.us, or social voting like Digg, or serendipitous discovery like StumbleUpon, users decide if a website is worth visiting by looking at its name, description, tags, and popularity.
Granted, those sites are getting smarter by taking snapshots of what the sites look like, or by isolating thumbnails for if it’s an image or video being bookmarked. But it’s nice to have a dedicated tool that satiates your hunger for all things eye candy. The question is, are these image bookmarking sites effective?
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ProBlogger’s got a post up by Suzanne Falter-Barns, basically retelling Andy Wibbels’ opinions on why blogs have killed conventional websites in a 13 point list. In other words, the question they’re asking – have blogs killed conventional websites? – i rhetorical to say the least.
The answer, being yes they have, obviously, is also wrong.
No, blogs haven’t killed conventional websites.
New publishing platforms have, on the other hand, killed the need for a webmaster hacking HTML code to update. Some people use blog software or bloggish news sections to get this effect, while others still have the same old conventional layout on their websites, just utilizing modern CMS platform to manage it.
Andy and Suzanne, you’re not talking about blogs killing conventional websites, you’re talking about modern platforms killing the need for a HTML hacking webmaster.
Apples and oranges, anyone?
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