[IxDA Discuss] Flash Usability Metrics

[Jason Brush]

> I'm not sure that I would mention Jscript as a solution for  
> anything SEO
> related as it has SEO issues of its own.
I should have been more clear on this point. I'm referring to the  
technique where as standards-compliant, search-engine-indexable XHTML  
is replaced by a Flash object JavaScript on page load.  This is the  
same technique that you list below. (As it happens, I work with Geoff  
Stearns who's blog you cite.)

> Both of these are low bandwidth options that should not negatively  
> impact
> the project schedule or the budget.

On this point, I have to disagree. If alternate content is built out  
for an entire site or application — which would be appropriate if all  
content needs to be made indexable and accessible — that means  
building two parallel presentation layers, which can be quite time- 
consuming and expensive if duplicating complex functionality in HTML  
that is already taking a lot of time to develop in Flash.

All of this aside, you're totally right: any statement linking  
JavaScript with SEO (or usability, or accessiblity) needs to be  
approached with the same caution as such statements vis-a-vis Flash.

**
Jason Brush
SVP, User Experience Design
Schematic