Wednesday, 02 July 2008
-
News Flash: Adobe Aids Search
Adobe's new software will make Flash-created content more easily seen by search engines like Google and Yahoo
Flash, software, Adobe, Google, Yahoo, search engine, Web, Macromedia, photos, animationIf you're trawling the Web to buy a pair of Nikes, shop for a Volkswagen, or get a glimpse of Walt Disney's Wall-E, chances are you'll end up viewing graphics built with Adobe Systems' Flash software. Good luck finding them with a search engine, though. Turns out Google and other Web-search tools can't easily recognize pages laden with Flash-created images.
At least not yet. Adobe (ADBE) announced steps to solve those problems on July 1, providing Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO) with software that will make pages inside Flash-powered sites show up higher in search results and infuse those results with more relevant details. Adobe's moves could persuade more consumers to visit its customers' sites and make Flash software more attractive to Web site developers. Adobe's agreements with the two biggest search engines on the Web is also a competitive slap at Microsoft (MSFT), which makes Web software that competes with Adobe's.
Overcoming a Technical Hurdle
Flash technology, which Adobe acquired when it bought software company Macromedia in 2005 (BusinessWeek.com, 12/27/05), lets Web sites act more like interactive programs, and it underlies content on a whole host of sites grouped under the Web 2.0 heading. Pages designed with Flash can display photos, animation, and ornate text when users click on or hover over a given portion of a site. But the special effects used on sites ranging from Nike (NKE), and Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) to Disney (DIS), The Discovery Channel, and the "Got Milk?" ad campaign can obscure those sites' information from Google's and Yahoo's indexing software, which until now hasn't been able to track Web pages that change based on users' actions. "It just looks like an opaque box" to search engines, says Jeffrey Hammond, a senior analyst at Forrester Research (FORR). "Google and Yahoo are missing out on all that great content."
Flash sites often sell products, contain advertisements, or promote movies and other events. So for the creators, it's important that those sites show up where consumers are clicking. U.S. Internet users lobbed nearly 62% of search queries toward Google in May, and more than 20% at Yahoo, according to market researcher comScore (SCOR). Adobe's moves could also help Web users find widget software on the social network Facebook.
Resources for
-
recommend
- recs 0
-
share
-
email
- sent 0
Post a Comment