Adobe Helps Search Leaders Uncover 'Invisible' Flash-based Content

Design software maker Adobe Systems Inc. announced Adobe announced late Monday night that it would begin providing its Adobe Flash Player technology to leading search engines Google and Yahoo to help them uncover Web content that was previously invisible to Web searches.

In a statement, the San Jose, Calif. Based Document and desktop graphics software developer Adobe said its optimized Adobe Flash Player technology help the search companies better index dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs) that include the Shockwave Flash file (SWF) format.

"Up 'til now, Flash content just hasn't been as thoroughly searchable as we'd like," said Justin Everett-Church, Senior Product Manager for Adobe Flash Player. "The text was just being pulled out in strange ways and left it looking really incomplete, as though you were reading the index of a book rather than the book itself."

According to Eric Wittman, director of client distribution and business development in Adobe's Platform Business Unit, the Flash technology will help search leaders enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format and make the content that is currently undiscoverable by search engines invisible.

"We've wanted to make an announcement of this impact for several years now," Wittman said. "There are millions of things built in Flash and there have been concerns because of search engine compatibility. We have a piece of technology to remedy this and we’re working with Google and Yahoo. Google has integrated it and Yahoo will in a period of time."

The three companies make Flash and other dynamic content that runs in Adobe Flash Player on thousands of Web sites visible to search from thousands of Web sites with immediate effect.

Why the world's largest software company Microsoft which is also the third biggest search engine in terms of market share was not chosen by Adobe to provide Flash technology is because of software company’s Silverlight technology which was launched last year in April.

In an effort to take aim at Adobe Systems' ubiquitous Flash technology, Microsoft unveiled the Silverlight technology, a Web browser plug-in for playing media files and displaying interactive Web applications, at the 2007 National Association of Broadcasters conference (NAB2007) in Las Vegas.

Microsoft Silverlight is a new cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web.