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copied!<p>Currently the best technique for making an RIA indexable by search engines is called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_enhancement" rel="nofollow noreferrer">progressive enhancement</a> (or graceful degradation, depending on which way you see it). Basically you create a simple HTML version of the application using the same data as the application loads. This version should be dynamically generated by some kind of backend server technology. This HTML version can be indexed by Google, but each page also contains a check that determines if the visitor is capable of viewing the rich version, and if so replaces the HTML content with the Flash, Flex or Silverlight application, preferably in such a way that the application starts in a state where it shows the same data as the current page. "Replaces" can mean that it just embeds the application on top of the HTML content, or that it redirects the user to a page that embeds it. The former solution is preferable, because the latter can be considered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloaking" rel="nofollow noreferrer">cloaking</a>.</p> <p>One way of keeping the HTML and RIA versions of a shop synchronized is to decide on a URL scheme and make sure that RIA uses some kind of deep linking technique. If a visitor arrives to a specific item via a search engine, say <code>/items/345</code> the corresponding pseudo-URL in the RIA should be the same, so that you can embed the RIA on top of the page and set that URL as a parameter to make the RIA display that same page as soon as it has loaded.</p> <p>This summer, Google and Yahoo! announced that they would begin using a custom version of Flash Player to index Flash based applications by exploring them "in the same way that a person would". Now, two months later there is still no evidence that this is actually happening. <a href="http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/?p=1617" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ryan Stweart had to cancel his Flex SEO competition</a> because it became evident that no one could win. The problem seems to be that event though the technique may very well work (although I'm sceptical), the custom Flash Player needs some kind of network interface to be able to load any referenced resources, like XML data, other SWFs, etc., and <a href="http://blog.iconara.net/2008/07/27/why-google-isnt-indexing-dynamic-content-yet/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this is currently not implemented by Google</a>. This means that for an application that loads all it's data dynamically, like say, all that I can think of, Googlebot will not actually see anything relevant. Yahoo! ignores SWF based content altogether.</p> <p>Oh, and it just so happens that I talk about Flex and SEO on <a href="http://www.theflexshow.com/blog/index.cfm/2008/9/10/The-Flex-Show-Episode-54" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the latest episode of the Flex show</a> =)</p>

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