Google Finance is JavaScript and Flash, Adobe says so!

Posted on September 15, 2006 | 2 comments

When Google introduced their new Finanace website a while back of course wanted to figure out what they where using.  I do my normal first test of using the right click button on the mouse to see if Flash comes up in the context menu.  Sure enough Flash is used on the charting part of the Google finance.

The more interesting part of this and why I bring it up is that Adobe actually acknowledges Google’s use of JavaScript and Flash in a technical document.

Also, because Flash Player is integrated with the browser runtime environment, developers can easily deliver applications that combine user interface logic written in JavaScript with components or entire applications written in Flex. For example, Google is taking advantage of both JavaScript
and Flash as part of its Google Finance site. As shown in Figure 12, the application uses common Ajax techniques to update news stories and highlight news items, while the interactive chart takes advantage of the Flash Player runtime to draw a rich data visualization and show the connections between breaking news and changing stock price.

Adobe® Flex™ 2 (page 18)

http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/whitepapers/pdfs/flex2wp_technicaloverview.pdf

They go on to talk about the Flex-Ajax bridge (FA Bridge) but nothing concrete that Google is actually using FA Bridge.  Either way its nice to see high profile uses of Flash and JavaScript/AJAX being referred to in an Adobe’s technical white paper.

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  • http://www.jabbypanda.com JabbyPanda

    The release of FABridge was an excitefull moment, but this tool has never left its ‘alpha’ status and I doubt it works in a consistent way all along popular web browsers and OS platforms.

    Currently we rely on External Interface approach to communicate between JavaScript and Flex 2, but I would like to receive more information on FABridge used in the production.

    FABridge from a distant point of view look much more superior to External Interface.

  • http://blogs.adobe.com/mikepotter/ Mike Potter

    The Google Finance site doesn’t rely on the Flex / Ajax bridge. It relies on an older Flash / Ajax bridge written by Macromedia employees.

    http://finance.google.com/finance/js/gen_flashhelper.js?v=1.39

    Mike