Posts Tagged Google
Playing with OAuth and twitteroauth
As some of you might know, on August 16th 2010 (it was June 30th at first, but they moved it because of the World cup), Twitter will be shutting down its basic authorization in favor of OAuth. Well Facebook also announced that they would be soon using OAuth. Google and Yahoo! use it too. Looks like it is a good time to learn it.
OAuth, contrary to what some might say is not that easy of a process. It involves a couple more steps than basic authorization. But what it gains from that is trust. The user never has to enter its username and password on your site. My problem with it is that I find that it breaks the user experience because it usually redirects the user’s browser to the website of which you want to use the API, so that the user can input its credentials and that they can allow your application to use data from the API. If you are not familiar with OAuth, here is a great beginner’s guide.
Here is a picture of all the steps involved in the process:
Now what I wanted to write about was the twitteroauth library for PHP by @abraham. I tried to try the other OAuth PHP library that is listed in the Twitter documentation but I couldn’t figure out anything; they talk about Two-Legged OAuth and Three-Legged OAuth, but I have never seen that anywhere. twitteroauth on the other hand is pretty simple to understand. By reading the documentation and starting with the example provided in the source code, I was able to implement what I wanted.
Now I wasn’t the one who created the application on Twitter (which you have to do before you get started with code), so there was a couple of settings that weren’t right at first. You can set if you want your application to be Read-only or Read & Write. Obviously if you want to send Tweets using your application, you will need it to be set to Read & Write. Also in order to use this library you must set your application as a Browser application (as opposed to Client which will not work). I just thought it would be good to list those here so that others (and I) don’t spend the half hour I lost trying to figure this out.
Here is another really interesting tidbit: once you create an authorization token, Twitter will never destroy it. This is not the same for all APIs (I know Yahoo! will expire the token after some time). So once you lead the user through all of the OAuth steps, you can keep the token and use it forever so that the user don’t have to go through the steps again, which is very useful for mobile and desktop apps. It also opens up possibilities for other stuff too, which I will show you eventually, if my current project ever finishes.
Well that is is for now, there will be more on OAuth soon as my next project also connect to another API that uses OAuth.
My article on Flash SEO on InsideRIA
Well I wanted to mention that one of my article was posted on InsideRIA. That was a great opportunity for me and I am already thinking about another article I could write for them. There is actually a good story (in my opinion) to tell about this.
I was at first writing a longuer article, about 6 pages or more long, on how Google was indexing Flash content. I was thinking that I could write it at the same pace that I write a post for my blog but I was wrong. I really wanted to write it in a professional way which is a bit different from this blog which I write in a more casual manner. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and when I am pressured to do something I actually end up post-ponning it indefinitively. Well, in the mean time of all this post-ponning, Google changed its algorithm, so my artcile was good for garbage. That was my fault, because I had many occasions to finish my artcile and I just didn’t.
But there was a good side to this story too; if Google changed its algorithm, it means that I could write an article about it. That`s what I did but this time I wrote it in a more casual way and I didn`t care how long it would end up. So it gave: Google changes the way it indexes SWF content. As for now, I will start to try to write a longuer article and we will see where that ends up.
In the mean time, enjoy my half-done redesign!
Flash and Flex SEO experiment part 2
I had previously made an SEO experiment to see what in Flash and in Flex was getting indexed by Google and I was able to get some results. Well, I decided to push the experiment further so I created seven new test cases both in Flash and in Flex. I have to warn you that I am more proficient in Flash than in Flex so my Flex test cases might be a bit off. Here are the new test cases (numbers start at 8 because I have already made 7 test cases):
Flash8. Static texfield embedded in the HTML using SWFObject 2.0
Link : http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v8/
Expected result: I really don’t know, some rumors say it gets indexed anyway, Google says it doesn’t; this will shed some light.
9. Multiple static textfield on different frames
Link : http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v9/
Expected result: From what I have seen before, Google will index the multiple texfields as if it was one text, so you could write a text with one word on each frame and it will appear as one.
10. Dynamic textfield prefilled with content after a preloader on the first frame
Link : http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v10/
Expected result: I did this to see if the preloader would prevent the content from being indexed. Since Google is able to index Flex content with the default preloader, I think this test case will get indexed.
11. Dynamic textfield outside the viewing area
Link : http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v11/
Expected result: I read that this was working, but with the new special player it shouldn’t. Let see what happens.
Flex
12. Simple custom MXML component
Link: http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v12/
Expected result: I saved a Text component in its own MXML file and used that file in my main application. I think this will work because logically it’s like writing the second file(custom component) in the first one (application).
13. Using States
Link : http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v13/
Expected result: I don’t think any of the content from this swf will be indexed because states use the words addChild in its mxml and I think(logically) this gets translated into the addChild function in AS3 and content added using addChild doesn’t get indexed.
14. Using the ViewStack component
Link : http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v14/
Expected result: I think this has more chances to work than states but since this is a more complex component than the Text one I cannot say for sure.
Now that everything is set up, we just have to wait for Google to crawl those pages. The results and a general recap of the experiment will be posted in an article on InsideRIA.
Google is not indexing your dynamic content in Flex or Flash
It’s a pretty shocking title with all the fuss about the new flash player for Google and Yahoo, but I will try to explain why I came to this conclusion. I suggest you read about the seven test cases I did because that’s mostly what my reasoning is built on. I am going to explain point by point what happened in the experiment.
My first test case was simply to put static text right on the first frame of the swf file. That’s all this flash file contained. If you search in Google for the unique expression contained in that static text, you will find the specific html embedding the swf, meaning that the content was indexed.
The second test case was similar to the first one except that instead of being a static textfield on the stage, it’s a prefilled dynamic textfield (meaning the text in the textfield was added using the Flash IDE not ActionScript). Again for this case if you search the unique expression, the good html page will come up (As for the first case, you see in the description in Google for that link the extract of text containing the expression furthermore proving that the content was indexed).
The third test case was also a dynamic textfield, but the text in it was added using ActionScript. The page is indexed in Google (do a search for ‘site:www.fleximagically-searchable.com “fleximagically searchable”‘ and click “repeat the search with the omitted results included” at the bottom of the page to see all test case indexed) but the content doesn’t show in the description of the link. Also if you did a search for the unique expression nothing relevant would come up.
The fourth test case, the last done in Flash, was a static textfield inside a Sprite added to the stage using ActionScript. Again for this case the html page is indexed, but none of the Flash content is.
The fifth test case, as all of the next test cases, was done in Flex, it’s a TextArea component in mxml filled with the text attribute in the mxml, so no ActionScript involved. In this case, if you search for the unique expression you will see that the content inside the swf is indexed, proof that some content in Flex can be indexed.
The sixth test case is a Label component in mxml filled with the text attribute int the mxml. In this case, the content didn’t show up on Google, so I guess not all components are indexable.
Lastly, the seventh test case is a Text component in mxml filled with content using the text attribute in the mxml. I think this case is really similar to the second test case; a dynamic textfield in Flash prefilled with content. In this case, the content showed up on Google, so the swf was indexed.
My conclusion
From this SEO experiment, we see that static textfields on the timeline, prefilled dynamic textfields and some basic Flex components (TextArea, Text) in mxml are indexed by Google. It seems to me that as soon as there is ActionScript involved to change the content, that content will not be indexed. If you look back a bit, you kinda see that Google doesn’t use any new Flash player to index swf files, it does what it always was doing; nothing new. If somebody has a proof of dynamic content being indexed by the new player I’d be glad to see it, but for now I am assuming that Google is not using the new player given by Adobe.
This brings us to the Flex Seo contest, where my Fleximagically Searchable entry is performing well, but my content is not indexed. My take is that this contest will be pretty hard to win. There might still be possibilities to make this work but I think they are a bit too far fetched. Here is what I think might still have some chances: I did all my experiments with ActionScript 3 and I believe from the results that you cannot win using ActionScript 3. Where there could still be some opportunities would be if the swf generated would be using ActionScript 2 (which would use the flash player virtual machine 1), so in order to win the contest, you would have to build your Flex application in Flex 1.5 or even before. This would mean that the new special flash player for Google would only work for Flash 8 and below. I really hope it is not the case and that it is just that Google is not using the special player yet.
Another way to win would be that Google roll out the new player before September which is the ending date of the contest. Let’s hope they do so!
Flex SEO Contest; I’m running out of titles
All my latest post have been about the Flex SEO contest, I’m sorry for those that don’t have interest in it, but I find it very challenging and fun.
From all the information that I have gathered from the web I have new insights about how to win this contest. If I was one of the other contestant of the contest I’d be sure to read my blog because I am giving info about how to win this contest all the time.
There are two major facts you have to know. First Google doesn’t index flash files that are embedded using JavaScript (I got this from different sources and Google itself). They are planning to do it, but it’s not implemented yet. So if you want to have a shot at winning, start by embedding your flash the old fashion way with embed/object tags. Secondly, even if the special flash player is able to read data from external source (XML, server side scripts, loaded SWF), Google is not indexing those as a part of the swf file. So you’ll have to use a different way to load your dynamic content (that doesn’t leave so many possibilities).
Another interesting fact is that for searches with the filetype swf (filetype:swf) Google is giving some importance to the url and the filename of the swf file. So if I really wanted to make things right, I would rename my Flex application for the contest fleximagically-searchable.swf, but I’ll wait until my content is indexed.
So in the light of these facts, I have modified my fleximagically searchable Flex application, go and have a look, it’s a so exciting application.
Converting this contest into a SEO experiment
From previous posts you know that I am participating in the Flex SEO contest. I got my page pretty high on Google, but it still doesn’t seem to be finding my content. There are still a lot of unknown about this new SEO technology that Adobe, Google and Yahoo worked on and I think that to make a Flex application that load the content dynamically is to go a bit too fast.
So with that in mind I made simpler swf files. I even made some using Flash to see what would get indexed and how. In each of my experiments I have included a unique search expression basically formed from Fleximagically Searchable plus another word. If you search Google with that expression and one of my experiment shows up, it means Google indexed the content. Here are my experiments:
Flash:
We don’t even know what type of swf is or is not indexed by Google so I sat down down and I made the simplest ones. Since Flex is pretty complex, I made some files using Flash.
The first one is only a static textfield right on the timeline. we know Google used to index those files, let’s see how it does it.
http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v1/
The second one is still in Flash using a prefilled dynamic textfield.
http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v2/
The third one is using a dynamic textfield again filled using ActionScript.
http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v3/
The fourth one is using a static textfield added to the stage using ActionScript.
http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v4/
Flex:
Since we don’t know if Flex files get indexed at all, I made three simple experiments using basic components: TextArea, Label, Text. In those experiments the content is filled using the text attribute in the MXML file.
Flex file using TextArea.
http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v5/
Flex file using Label.
http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v6/
Flex file using Text.
http://www.fleximagically-searchable.com/fleximagically-searchable-v7/
Now let’s wait for Google to crawl these pages and then we will be able to better understand how this all works.
More on the Flex SEO contest
If you have been following this blog, you know that I entered the contest to get a Flex application on the top of Google for the words “Fleximagically Searchable”. The next logic step was for me to add deep-linking to my application, but it’s not what I am going to do. Why you could ask? Because even if the webpage for my application is appearing on Google, the content itself doesn’t seem to be included. So there is no meaning of implementing deep-linking if my content won’t be found.
There have been rumors around the fact the Google would not reference website that use javascript to embed the flash file. Peter Elst seems to think the contrary but I think it is worth a try. I was previously using SWFObject to embed my swf because I had in mind to use SWFAddress for the deep-linking, but now if you do a view source of my Fleximagically Searchable application you will see that I am using the good old Object and Embed tags. Let’s see what Google think of the new page.
Update on the SEO contest
I have set my self up for Flex application development and thanks to this post about how to use Flash Develop and Flex, I was able to do so quickly.
Yesterday I had simply created the HTML pages that would hold my application, today I created the application itself. It is quite a simple application and it is clearly a Flex one because of the skin of the components ( a button and a textarea). This will serve as a base for what is to come. The next step is to create the deep-linking. It has already some kind of deep-linking in the sense that you can go directly to this Fleximagically Searchable page. This page loads exactly the same swf than the page at the root of the domain, but I pass it a variable using SWFObject to tell it to load the content. If Google find any searchable content in any of those two pages, it means it comes from the dynamically loaded content because I removed everything in the HTML code except for the title of the page.
From what I did yesterday I am already getting some results, the new domain name I bought is scoring a ten (it is the tenth page for the term Fleximagically Searchable) and all the pages before it are blog posts (including one from this blog) that will not count in the contest so I guess I have my chances. Let’s see how it all evolves.
How Google indexes Flash content
I found while browsing the web two articles about how Google indexes Flash content; here they are:
Google reads Flash text, so optimize it and Matt Cutts on how you can help Googlebot “see” your Flash content.
Basically what they say is that Google is kinda working with Adobe on that, in fact Google is using the Search Engine SDK made by Adobe in order to find text in Flash files. Also, you can read there also that the techniques I explained about how to optimize your flash website for Google (easy technique, brute force technique) are accepted by Google (not seen as blackhat tricks) only if you put in the HTML the exact text that is in the Flash file. Have a good read.
