I'm not a huge fan of creating sites with Adobe's Flash.  I personally find Flash sites difficult to navigate, bookmark, and retrieve worthwhile information.  However, I can understand why the more artistic Web designers and site owners out there prefer to use Flash when building a website.  But in my mind, one of the biggest drawbacks with Flash is that Google and other search engines have a difficult time reading and indexing Flash sites.  Let's face it, if Google can't search your site then it is highly unlikely your customers will find your site in the first few pages displayed by Google no matter which keywords are being used.

Luckily for Flash fans, Google has changed the rules by improving their search capability for Flash sites.

Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites. Recently, we've improved the performance of this Flash indexing algorithm by integrating Adobe's Flash Player technology.

In the past, web designers faced challenges if they chose to develop a site in Flash because the content they included was not indexable by search engines. They needed to make extra effort to ensure that their content was also presented in another way that search engines could find.

So there you have it.  I just lost my number one argument against building a site using Flash technology.  Web designers and site owners will likely want to read Google's questions and answers pertaining to the improvements with Flash indexing.

Company says it's supporting public-domain project incorporated into
some of Adobe's own software. Also new: an Adobe open-source site.
(From News.com's Underexposed blog)

Complete Story

"Adobe
today announced the availability of its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR)
cross-operating system for taking rich Internet applications (RIA) to
the desktop.

Adobe also released Flex 3, an open-source development tool set aimed at helping developers build RIAs."

Complete Story at ComputerWorld

"Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. and the American Cancer Society Inc. are
looking to Adobe Integrated Runtime technology to take some of their
rich Internet applications to the desktop.

The new AIR technology from San Jose-based Adobe Systems Inc.
is among several emerging products that promise to let companies run
Web applications built using various AJAX tools on desktop systems. AIR
is slated to ship next month, according to Adobe."

Complete Story from ComputerWorld

"You've heard of Photoshop, right? Of course you have -- you wouldn't be reading this book otherwise! You've probably heard of Photoshop's sidekick, Fireworks, too, but you might not be quite sure of what it does or where it fits in."

Complete Story