How to keep google from reading Flash?

[texxs]

So now that google can read text in flash, poorly (they say animation will be read as duplicate content for example), how can I keep it from reading the text in flash movies.

My .swf's are ussually near the top of the page and usually contain action phrases or phone numbers and such. We don't want these things indexed. We also don't want them to be used when google is determining what our sites are about. After all our website isn't about our "New Extended office hours" but that's obviously something very important we want near the tops of our pages for humans to see. Humans get our site isn't about the phrase extended office hours but about (well something else I'm not allowed to talk about).

Any suggestions?

[morestar]

well I haven't looked into it but I would say to add the .swf file to your robots.txt file at first and go from there...

I read here: Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Improved Flash indexing
that replacing the text you don't want google to index within the flash object with an image would be ideal as well...

or you can load the text you don't want indexed from an external file of which won't be indexed according to the link i provided.

[mp3r4]

if it got indexed you can try Google Webmaster tools and remove that file from Google search results:


Individual URLs: web pages, images, or other files Remove outdated or blocked web pages, images, and other documents from appearing in Google search results.

[wige]

Removing a URL through GWT only lasts for a few weeks to a couple months.

One option beyond blocking the flash files through robots.txt might be to replace the text in the flash file with an image, the same way you might use an image in the web page to hide text from the engines.

[Uncle Dog]

Ten years from now... Google can now recognise people in photographs.

If you don't want google to recognise a person in your picture you should replace them with a dummy.

[texxs]

Originally Posted by morestar

well I haven't looked into it but I would say to add the .swf file to your robots.txt file at first and go from there...

Doh! I got so fixated on high tech solutions I forgot oabout lower tech solutions that already exsist!

great help from everyone and I appreciate it.

Images is what I thought of first, but it's not really an option as I need a transparant background. (of course I just realized that a transparent .png will display fine in IE6 and below IF it's in a flash movie (won't it?).

But I read on google and adobe that text displayed in a .swf w but loaded into theire from an external file will still be indexed by google, it'll just show the external file in the search results not the page with .swf on it.

Thanks again all!

[morestar]

Originally Posted by Uncle Dog

Ten years from now... Google can now recognise people in photographs.

If you don't want google to recognise a person in your picture you should replace them with a dummy.

are you kidding?

[Uncle Dog]

Yes, but I'm surprised you had to ask.

I was just making light of the fact that if you put information out there, however obscurely, you shouldn't be shocked when someone starts using it.

[morestar]

Originally Posted by Uncle Dog

Yes, but I'm surprised you had to ask.

I was just making light of the fact that if you put information out there, however obscurely, you shouldn't be shocked when someone starts using it.

no i only asked if you were kidding because i didn't quite understand what you were saying. I'm wouldn't surprised if I published information on the web and someone started using or indexing it.

[JoomlaBear]

Regarding using images instead of text in Flash - there is an easier way!!!

In Flash just select your text and use the option to 'break apart' - or shortcut CTRL-B, or APPLE-B for Mac.

This converts the text to paths essentially - simialr to Illustrator, etc - it is no longer characters but small vector shapes, if that make sense.

Much quicker than making an image - and it looks identical to normal flash text.

[langsor]

Well, when I want to reorder elements on a page differently than how they are ordered in the source code, I simply use CSS positioning to do that for me. Or you could use a javascript function to write the Flash object/embed tags after the page has loaded...a couple of low-tech options for you.

[langsor]

Originally Posted by JoomlaBear

Regarding using images instead of text in Flash - there is an easier way!!!

In Flash just select your text and use the option to 'break apart' - or shortcut CTRL-B, or APPLE-B for Mac.

This converts the text to paths essentially - simialr to Illustrator, etc - it is no longer characters but small vector shapes, if that make sense.

Much quicker than making an image - and it looks identical to normal flash text.

Just curious, but doesn't bitmap graphics require more byte-size than vector graphics...so wouldn't this increase the size of the Flash object.

[luigip]

Originally Posted by Uncle Dog

Ten years from now... Google can now recognise people in photographs

Ten or more years before now ... facial recognition systems existed.

Today Google can recognise people in photographs.

[luigip]

Originally Posted by langsor

Just curious, but doesn't bitmap graphics require more byte-size than vector graphics...so wouldn't this increase the size of the Flash object.

No, because the suggested paths are vector graphics. JoomlaBear wrote this, just read his posting again.

[JoomlaBear]

Thx Luigip,

Yes the characters are still vector - so file size remains small-ish.

Vector file sizes is a whole other discussion - however there is something to consider in brief which is that when a font is embedded in flash, each character/letter only needs to be included once - Every time we see the letter "a" it is the same vector object repeated.

However if you break apart a large block of text, file size may increase because each instance of a letter becomes its own vector shape - a unique vector object.

Could have an impact with very large amounts of text.

[Uncle Dog]

@luigip - As far as I know, if you put a photo of someone online Google doesn't yet say "Oh yes, that's Brian Smith... and here's his house, the street he lives on, his new car and the kind of porn he likes." I said yet.

[texxs]

Originally Posted by JoomlaBear

Regarding using images instead of text in Flash - there is an easier way!!!

In Flash just select your text and use the option to 'break apart' - or shortcut CTRL-B, or APPLE-B for Mac.

This converts the text to paths essentially - similar to Illustrator, etc - it is no longer characters but small vector shapes, if that make sense.

Much quicker than making an image - and it looks identical to normal flash text.

Yah - I tried this but wasn't certain it was bitmaps afterward. . .

Thanks

[texxs]

Originally Posted by Uncle Dog

@luigip - As far as I know, if you put a photo of someone online Google doesn't yet say "Oh yes, that's Brian Smith... and here's his house, the street he lives on, his new car and the kind of porn he likes." I said yet.

I'm betting they could get that started within a year if they were asked to or if they thought it may be profitable.

Thanks now I'm so paranoid, I'm running around deleteing every digital picture there is f me !

jk . . .

[nickoran]

Originally Posted by Uncle Dog

Ten years from now... Google can now recognise people in photographs.

If you don't want google to recognise a person in your picture you should replace them with a dummy.

i look forward to tagging the dummies and having them indexed! i can imagine a whole new kind of google bombing coming into play then too!

[wige]

Originally Posted by Uncle Dog

Ten years from now... Google can now recognise people in photographs.

What do you mean, ten years from now? Google Shows Blurred Faces in Street View to Protect Privacy