Adobe makes Flash sites searchable

Tech passed to Google and Yahoo will rapidly change search results

1 July 2008 11:45 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Internet searching on certain engines is about to get more precise, thanks to agreements just announced by Adobe.

Up until now animated Flash-based or Shockwave Flash websites were not as searchable as static sites and although search engines trawled the sites and indexed static text and links, the main content of the sites would not be collected by search bots, and therefore would not show up in search results.

However, Adobe has now issued an optimised Adobe Flash Player that will be added to Google and Yahoo's search engines under new agreements with the two net companies.

This new tech will mean that the search engines for the first time will be able to easily index "dynamic" web content and rich internet applications that include Flash format files, or Shockwave Flash which may well dramatically change the results you'll get for searches virtually overnight.

Google has gone live with the improved Flash Player already while Yahoo plans to introduce it soon.