Google Isn’t Just Using Flash, They’re Using Flex!

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SearchMashCheck this out. Google has something called SearchMash which as far as I can tell is just a way for them to mess around with different interfaces/options for their search technology. So this isn’t going to the home page or anything, but today they rolled out a Flash-based version.

Google using Flash isn’t groundbreaking because they use it in places like Google Finance and a web based version of Google Talk. But SearchMash is done in Flex! If you would have told me yesterday that Google would roll out Flex anything I would have laughed at your face. Are they playing with Flex? I wonder if the open source announcement had anything to do with them starting to dabble. We’re not going to see Flex on the home page any time soon but maybe they’re looking at rolling out some Flex-based Google apps or maybe they’re looking at buying a company currently using Flex.

Also, as Mike Potter notes, they’re doing some cool stuff with Google Maps and Flash/Flex. They’re also using some deep linking features and have some accessibility stuff built in. Very, very interesting.

Speculation on!

[tags]Google, Flex, Flash, SearchMash[/tags]

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  3. Flex and a Google Office Suite
  4. Google Finance – Beauty with Flash and AJAX
  5. Google Analytics AIR Application
  • Anonymous

    This site is a fake site. I tried to quiz ‘Ryan’ on ‘his’ technical knowlege and go no further than anyone with acess to Google would have found. Where is the reference to the GOF book ‘Ryan’?

    People stop reading this blog as it is a cynical attempt by the marketing dept of Adobe to push their point of view out.

    http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com/?p=1116#comments

  • http://www.aroundgreece.com Alex

    Well a quick look at the whois info for the site does appear to show it as being part of Google.

    I was actually playing about with it, and found some the features pretty useful. OK – they might not be to everyones taste, but it is a nice alternative to searching on the typical Google site we all know and use.

  • http://www.tink.ws/blog Tink

    Big deal. Flex is Flash and the sooner people realize that the better.

  • http://en.flash-ripper.com/ Rostislav Siryk

    I’m thinking about motivation behind Google’s playing with Flex.

    The strong points of Flex technology (SearchMash is developed in) is big set of ready-to use UI components (=fast prototyping), high debugging capabilities, compile-time error checking, strong variable typing and overall proximity of ActionScript3 language to the latest ECMAScript implementation, which brings AS3 far towards the best practices of architecture and coding. Javascript2 will have set of new features in future, while many of them are already well-implemented in AS3, it’s today. So, making AS3 application, Google might foresees the upcoming JS2 in Firefox 3/4.

    Moreover, Tamarin project brings both AS and JS languages even closer together, so implementing SearchMash today in AS3/Flash might make future migration to the Javascript3 easier.

    P.S.
    Also, Google has the flash-powered Google Analytics application, which new version rolled out just a few months ago. Let’s add it to the list of Google’s Flash Treasures :)

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