Flash search focus for Google, Yahoo!

1st July 2008

Adobe has today (July 1st) announced plans to make Flash content more searchable on the web.

The software company revealed that it is working with Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing for Flash pages and applications so that they are able to appear in search rankings like other web pages.

Google has been developing an algorithm that searches Flash objects and self-contained sites for text, according to the Official Google Blog. It has already implemented this technology into its search service, with Yahoo! set to do so soon.

"Until now, it has been extremely challenging to search the millions of 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 David Wadhwani, general manager and vice-president of the platform business unit at Adobe.

The Flash Player was initially the brainchild of Macromedia, which also created the Dreamweaver web design software and the Fireworks image editing application.

Macromedia was acquired by Adobe in 2005.