Starting in July, Google implemented a new program to notify mobile search users if a website's homepage uses Adobe Flash to display content.

1. Google announces Mobile Flash
Warnings appearing in more
Languages

2. Starting in July, Google implemented a new program to
notify mobile search users if a website's homepage uses
Adobe Flash to display content. Mobile users using
Google to search the web on all iOS platforms or
Android 4.1+ will see a warning that says "Uses Flash.
May not work on your device" next to search results,
and the option to try the website anyway or learn more
about why Flash may not be appropriate for some web
platforms.

3. A Google representative, Pierre Far, said on his
personal Google+ page, "If your website still uses
deprecated technologies that don't work on mobile
devices, it's already well past the time to update it." As
a solution to the problem, Pierre Far went on to say,
"Use HTML (5), JS, and CSS as they are the only
technologies widely (and sometimes solely!) supported
by all devices."

4. More Languages
Google's mobile flash warning started as an English-only
notification, but has now made its way to
Spanish, German, and Japanese search result pages and
a 'pilot' program to see if the warning effectively
detects Flash on all foreign language sites is also in
place. The goal is to implement the warning on all of
Google's search platforms definitively by the end of
the year.
The warnings display in all languages with access to
Google search by detecting the search result's origin
and displaying the warning in the user's native
language.

5. General Flash Content
For web-masters whose websites are not primarily
coded in Flash, there's not much to worry about just
yet. Websites built on HTML and CSS that have small
amounts of Flash content separate from the basic
functionality of the website are currently immune from
the Google search warning. While Google hopes to
eliminate Flash content because of its difficulties
displaying on modern web browsers and on mobile
devices, sites containing Flash are still showing up
normally in search results for now.

6. Lower Search Results
Google is hoping to encourage more developers to
move away from Flash in the coming months by
threatening lower search engine rankings for those that
resist the change. Google says it has a commitment to
maintaining a quality user experience and Flash
technology is disruptive in more ways than one.
Developers resistant to changing web development
practices will start to suffer traffic losses from lower
search engine results.

7. More information about the change to Flash restrictions
is available on Google's Web Fundamentals blog. Lists
of best practices for coding for a mobile environment
are available in English, German, Spanish, and
Japanese.

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