TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Up until now it's been very challenging to search rich Internet applications on the web because content in Flash rarely gets picked up by search engine indexes (they can see the SWF file but not the content inside), rendering sites that are heavy on Flash nearly-invisible to casual visitors. This has long-been a major drawback for the format, but is about to change.

Adobe has announced that it is partnering with Google and Yahoo to make Flash content more visible, by offering them an “optimized” version of Flash Player that sits on their servers and goes through Flash files’ content as if a user was clicking buttons and navigating within – thus translating it into something the search engines can understand.

Google has already added the optimized Flash Player to its search engine, while Yahoo plans to add the technology to a future update of Yahoo Search. For end consumers, this will only mean the ability to find more relevant information when doing search, but the move could have much larger implications for the internet marketing and SEO sectors.