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Amongst all the fuss about Google+, the company has also released a prototype of a tool for converting Flash into HTML5. It’s called Swiffy.

According to Marcel Gordon, Swiffy’s product manager, the project was started by an engineering intern named Pieter Senster, who wanted to explore how to display Flash ads on devices like the iPhone and iPad, which don’t support Flash. “Pieter made such great progress that Google hired him full time and formed a team to work on the project,” said Gordon.

Swiffy is simple. You upload a .swf file, and it spits out a JSON file, which is then shown on a page alongside the original Flash file. You can embed it on your own page in an iFrame, which can then be rendered using HTML, SVG and CSS on the user’s computer. They’re slightly larger than the original .swf files, but when compressed the difference isn’t too enormous.

It’s still a Google Labs project, so it doesn’t have the polish of other Google offerings, but already supports vector graphics, embedded fonts, images and timeline animation. There’s also support for basic ActionScript 2.0 code, but “don’t expect to convert your favorite Flash game yet,” say Google in its FAQ for the product.

If you want to see it in action, Google’s got a gallery of examples.