Adobe Improving Flash Web Search Support

by , 7:55 AM EDT, July 2nd, 2008

Flash-based content has historically been difficult for Web-based search engines to index, but Adobe is hoping to change that by working with Yahoo! and Google to make it easier for engines to sort through dynamically created Flash-based content.

Adobe's move should ultimately make it easier for end users to find more content online, and Flash-based Web site and rich Internet application developers will potentially find their content in front of a wider audience.

David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe, commented "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."

Since the necessary changes to make Flash content more searchable will happen on Yahoo! and Google's end, developers won't need to make any changes to their Web sites or rich Internet applications.

While the team-up may be good news for developers and most Web surfers, it does have a downside: Now there is one less barrier keeping bad designers from creating poorly thought out Flash-based Web sites.