Google and Yahoo get new Flash search tools

Posted on 1 Jul 2008 at 09:06

Adobe is hoping to improve the ability to search Flash content on the web by supplying optimised Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo.

The technology is designed to extend the capabilities of search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and expose information that they currently cannot see.

This, says Adobe, will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of web applications and other Flash content and means that providers won't need to amend content to make it searchable.

Search engines already index static text and links within Flash files, dynamic content has been more problematic, since its very nature means it always changing, explained David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe

"Until now it has been extremely challenging to search the millions of RIAs [rich internet applications] and dynamic content on the Web, so we are leading the charge in improving search of content that runs in Adobe Flash Player," said Wadhwani. "We are initially working with Google and Yahoo! to significantly improve search of this rich content on the Web, and we intend to broaden the availability of this capability to benefit all content publishers, developers and end users."

Google has already begun to implement the technology while Yahoo is planning to incorporate it in a future update to its search tools.

Author: Simon Aughton

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