SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the company is
teaming up with search industry leaders to dramatically improve search
results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs).
Adobe is providing optimized Adobe® Flash®
Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing
of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently
undiscoverable by search engines. This will provide more relevant
automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic
content that run in Adobe Flash Player. Moving forward, RIA developers
and rich Web content producers won’t need to
amend existing and future content to make it searchable —
they can now be confident it can be found by users around the globe.

The openly published SWF specification describes the file format used to
deliver rich applications and interactive content via Adobe Flash
Player, which is installed on more than 98 percent of Internet-connected
computers. Although search engines already index static text and links
within SWF files, RIAs and dynamic Web content have been generally
difficult to fully expose to search engines because of their changing
states — a problem also inherent in other RIA
technologies.

“Until now it has been extremely challenging
to search the millions of RIAs 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. “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 roll out Adobe Flash Player technology
incorporated into its search engine. With Adobe’s help, Google can now
better read the content on sites that use Adobe Flash technology,
helping users find more relevant information when conducting searches.
As a result, millions of pre-existing RIAs and dynamic Web experiences
that utilize Adobe Flash technology, including content that loads at
runtime, are immediately searchable without the need for companies and
developers to alter them.

“Google has been working hard to improve how
we can read and discover SWF files,” said
Bill Coughran, senior vice president of engineering at Google. “Through
our recent collaboration with Adobe, we now help Web site owners that
choose to design sites with Adobe Flash software by indexing this
content better. Improving how we crawl dynamic content will ultimately
enhance the search experience for our users.”

Yahoo! also expects to deliver improved Web search capabilities for SWF
applications in a future update to Yahoo! Search. “Yahoo!
is committed to supporting webmaster needs with plans to support
searchable SWF and is working with Adobe to determine the best possible
implementation,” said Sean Suchter, vice
president Yahoo! Search Technology Engineering.

“Designers and Web developers have long been
frustrated that search engines couldn’t
better access the information within their content created with Flash
technology. It’s great to see Adobe and the
search engines working directly together to improve the situation,”
said Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief, SearchEngineLand.com. “The
changes should help unlock information that’s
previously been ‘invisible’
and will likely result in a better experience for searchers.”

Adobe Flash Player is the world’s most
pervasive client runtime that delivers unparalleled creative options,
highly engaging user experiences, stunning audio/video playback, and
nearly universal reach. To download and learn more about Adobe Flash
Player, please visit www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/.

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information –
anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

© 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights
reserved. Adobe and Flash are either registered trademarks or trademarks
of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other
countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners.