Adobe's Ichabod to improve Flash searches

22/10/2008

In news that may be of interest to those involved in search engine optimisation, Adobe Systems has developed a programme to enable search engines to crawl Flash content.

The technology has been unveiled to Google and Adobe is currently working with rival search engine Yahoo to implement Ichabod, reports InfoWorld.com.

Kevin Lynch, CTO of Adobe at the AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo, commented: " "As people are starting to build AJAX apps, the content is getting more opaque."

"It's getting harder to find with the search engine. You need to be able to still get to that information as a user," he added.

Ichabod makes content come back to search engines where it is then indexed. If the software finds a flash button, it will attempt to press it to "generate an event".

According to Adobe, this may then lead to an indexing of the content.

Earlier this year, Adobe announced that it was working with Google on using the technology for its crawler.

The firm claims that content previously unnoticed by search engines will now be recognised, a development which could change certain search marketing strategies.