All Things Digital

Flash content on the Web may be slow-loading and occasionally nonintuitive, but at least now it’s searchable.

Adobe (ADBE) has conceived of a way for search engines to index Flash content, even pre-existing Flash content, without the need for developer intervention. It’s made content encoded in the Flash file format (SWF), which was previously undiscoverable to search engines, discoverable–and it’s given Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO) the tools necessary to discover it.

As Ryan Stewart, an Adobe evangelist, explained: “We are giving a special, search-engine optimized Flash Player to Yahoo and Google, which is going to help them crawl through every bit of your SWF file. This Flash Player will act just like a person would in some cases. It will click on your buttons, it will move through the states of your application, get data from the server when your application normally would, and it will capture all of the text and data that you’ve got inside of your Flash-based application. We’ve basically provided a very powerful looking glass into SWF files so Google and Yahoo can pull out meaningful information.”

Google will begin doing that today; Yahoo, whenever it manages. A big change for both companies, especially Google, which has long advised Webmasters concerned about their PageRank to use Flash sparingly. “In general, search engines are text based,” the company explains in its “Creating a Google-friendly site” FAQ. “This means that in order to be crawled and indexed, your content needs to be in text format. This doesn’t mean that you can’t include images, Flash files, videos and other rich media content on your site; it just means that any content you embed in these files should also be available in text format or it won’t be accessible to search engines.”

Today that changes. And now, developers can use Flash to their hearts’ content, without mucking about with workarounds to ensure the dynamic content it makes possible is properly indexed and ranked.

Amazing how a record $1.35 billion in antitrust fines can change your perspective on software interoperability, eh? Under pressure from European regulators, national standards organizations and anyone else interested in open standards, Microsoft (MSFT) has committed to using open document standards in the future.

Late yesterday, the company announced plans to add support for the open source Open Document Format–a rival of Microsoft Word–to Office 2007. Beginning with Service Pack 2 for Office 2007, due in the first half of next year the market-leading productivity suite will offer ODF as a default file format and Adobe’s (ADBE) PDF (Portable Document Format) and Microsoft’s own XML Paper Specification as well. “We have heard from customers and governments that they would like to see us do this,” said Tom Robertson, general manager of Interoperability and Standards at Microsoft. “Now is the time to announce this support.”

“Now,” of course being short for “now that the European Commission is investigating us again over claims of monopoly abuse;” “support” short for “poor support.” At least that seems to be the position of the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, which is openly skeptical of Microsoft’s sudden commitment to genuine interoperability. “It is particularly striking that all of Microsoft’s latest policy statements on interoperability are still in the future tense, as though these were difficult technical objectives,” said ECIS spokesman Thomas Vinje. “They are not. A closer look at their substance suggests that Microsoft is still playing for time to further consolidate its super-dominant position, and that continued antitrust vigilance will be necessary.”

And continued antitrust vigilance is what Microsoft’s going to get. This morning the EC said it had “taken note” of the company’s announcement and plans to study it. Said the EC, “In its ongoing antitrust investigation concerning interoperability with Microsoft Office, the commission will investigate whether the announced support of ODF in Office leads to better interoperability and allows consumers to process and exchange their documents with the software product of their choice.”

Our relationship with Apple is like a relationship in any marriage, good or bad. It’s an important relationship for both of us to maintain and make stronger, knowing that there are differences.”

–Former Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen, Sept. 2003

The iPhone doesn’t support Flash and according to Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs it’s not going to anytime soon.

In remarks during the company’s annual shareholder meeting yesterday, Jobs said Flash Lite, the mobile version of Adobe’s (ADBE) popular Flash Media Player, simply isn’t good enough for the iPhone. The device needs something more robust, but not so much so that it compromises its performance. Apparently, Flash Lite is insufficient, and the standard Flash player runs too slowly on the iPhone’s processor. Flash “performs too slow to be useful,” Jobs said. And Flash Lite “is not capable of being used with the Web. … There’s this missing product in the middle.”

“Too slow to be useful.” “Not capable of being used on the Web.” That’s a disparaging way of describing the products of a partner with whom you’ve had strained relations over the years, isn’t it. Certainly, it’s not the most diplomatic. But then Jobs isn’t exactly renowned for his diplomacy. As a recent profile of him Fortune explains, “Jobs himself judges the world in binary terms. Products, in his view, are ‘insanely great’ or ’shit.’ … Subordinates are geniuses or ‘bozos,’ indispensable or no longer relevant. People in his orbit regularly flip, at a second’s notice, from one category to another, in what early Apple colleagues came to call his ‘hero-shithead roller coaster.’”

So why take such a pot shot at Adobe in a public forum like this? Is Jobs telling the company to get its act together and develop an iPhone-specific Flash player, or is he suggesting that Apple itself might develop that “missing product in the middle”? Hmm. Perhaps it already has.

Note: John Paczkowski is on vacation and won’t be writing or posting videos until he returns on Monday.

To keep you abreast of tech news while he’s away, we’re compiling a daily digest of 10 must-read tech stories. Our Tech 10 appears below.

1. Coming to a PDF Near You: Adobe announced today that it is teaming with Yahoo to put text-based ads in PDF files, reports The Wall Street Journal, noting that publishers will be paid for running ads from Yahoo Inc. next to the PDFs.
2. But Will It Be Able to Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound? The new and improved version of Apple’s iPhone will be able to download from the Internet at a faster rate, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson announced last night, Bloomberg reports. Speaking to the Churchill Club in Santa Clara, Calif., Stephenson also divulged that the new iteration of the device will debut next year and will operate on third-generation wireless networks. (AT&T is the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in the U.S.)
3. Nothing’s Set in Concrete, After All: Responding to criticism from MoveOn, Facebook execs are looking into changes to the recently launched Beacon advertising tool, according to BusinessWeek, adding that adjustments to the system could come as early as today.
4. Democracy Comes to Search Results: Google is experimenting with a system that enables users to change the rankings of or delete sites in personalized searches, according to Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal, explaining that the new system will allow users to manipulate search results by simply hitting dedicated buttons.
5. Reining In Comcast: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is proposing a rule to keep cable colossus Comcast from growing larger, the New York Times is reporting, adding that the new rule comes as Martin attempts to regain the upper hand after his earlier proposal to broadly control the cable industry was shot down.
6. The Faster the Better: Verizon Wireless will upgrade its network in 2008, according to Reuters, using long-term evolution technology to achieve higher speeds. The new system could end up challenging Qualcomm, which developed the CDMA technology Verizon’s current network is based on, as well as supporters of WiMax.
7. Strike This Strike? ABC and the Writers Guild of America, East, announced today that they had come to a tentative agreement for about 250 ABC News writers, editors, graphic artists and desk assistants in New York and Washington, D.C., according to the Hollywood Reporter. The union, which has worked without a contract since Jan. 31, 2005, will vote on the new agreement Dec. 13.



8. Cartman, Kyle and Kenny–Free: Following the online popularity of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” MTV Networks will make all episodes of the animated comedy “South Park” available for free in 2008 according to Reuters, noting that the move is part of Viacom’s strategy to boost TV viewership.
9. Just When You Thought Things Couldn’t Get Any Worse: Along comes Warner Music Group’s gloomy forecast for 2008. In today’s fourth-quarter earnings call, CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. predicts a continuing decline in physical music sales as retailers cut back on shelf space, while the digital-music and mobile sales growth will be slower than expected, reports Peter Kafka of Silicon Alley Insider.
10. No Wii? Waaaaa! The popularity of Nintendo’s gaming console coupled with “a maxed-out supply chain that can’t be ramped up to meet holiday demands” means it could be next to impossible to purchase a Wii before Christmas at retail stores, explains Chris Kohler at Wired.

–posted by Associate Editor John Sullivan

If Adobe Chief Executive Officer Bruce Chizen planned to quit while he was ahead, he couldn’t have picked a better time. When Chizen steps down as CEO at the end of this month, to be succeeded Dec. 1 by Adobe COO Shantanu Narayen, he will depart a company that’s flourishing financially. Adobe posted better-than-expected third quarter results in September and expects to post fourth-quarter revenue “near the high end” of its target range.

So why resign?

“As any CEO will attest, the job of chief executive is all-consuming,” Chizen said during a call with analysts. “Quite simply, I’m at a point in my life where I would like to take a step back and think about what I would like to do in the next stage of my life. As much as I love Adobe products and employees, I didn’t want to find myself at 55 saying, ‘Gee, I wish I had done something else besides Adobe.’ ” What will he do next? “It could be that I do nothing, travel, sit on boards, run another company, invest in another company. I don’t know–nor would I ever know if I didn’t decide to take a break.”

Note: John Paczkowski is on vacation and won’t be writing or posting videos until he returns Monday.

To keep you abreast of tech news while he’s away, we’re compiling a daily digest of 10 must-read tech stories. We’re calling it the Tech 10 and it appears below.

1. Retailing behemoth Wal-Mart will sell digital-music downloads on its Web site without copy protection, Reuters reports. The so-called digital-rights management software insisted on by some record labels can stymie where the average user plays the songs.
2. Taking on the juggernaut of iTunes, MTV and RealNetworks are forming an online digital music venture called Rhapsody America. According to The Wall Street Journal, Verizon Wireless has signed on as mobile distributor of the joint content.
3. Adobe Systems’ warhorse Flash Player is getting a makeover named “Moviestar.” The update, says InfoWorld’s Paul Krill, will bring high-definition video technology to downloads, affording clearer and smoother playback of images.
4. Increasingly popular online video site Metacafe got a shot in the arm in the form of $30 million in financing. VentureBeat reports that the latest cash infusion was led by new investors Highland Capital Partners and DAG Ventures.
5. Acknowledging it did bad (though not evil), Google announced last night that it would make credit-card refunds, rather than Google Checkout credits, to those owed after the company terminated its download-to-own/rent service of Google Videos. PC Magazine disclosed that the search giant will also allow users an additional six months to watch the videos they have already downloaded.
6. Fretting over security and productivity concerns, half of all companies in a recent survey are blocking employees’ access to Facebook. The poll of 600 workers by online security firm Sophos also found that two-thirds of all employees believe their colleagues are revealing too much information on the social-networking site, exposing them to cybercriminals bent on data theft and their companies to network hackers.
7. Bebo, the U.K.-centric social-networking site, has announced a partnership with Microsoft on a new instant-messaging service. According to Webware, the Windows Live Messenger hookup is only that–and not a signal of any impending acquisition.
8. Joining the social-networking parade, online business network CollectiveX has launched Groupsites. According to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, the new product opens up the buttoned-down service to allow users to create social profiles as well.
9. Upping the ante in the competition for giving laptop users more memory, Toshiba announced today that it will release a 320-gigabyte hard drive for its laptops by the end of the year. According to IDG News Service, for users of multimedia laptops–where storing video is paramount–the extra space will come as a welcome feature.



10. In a bow to color choice and the sexes, researchers have found that there’s truth in the the time-honored (if sexist) adage that girls like pink, boys like blue. Reporting on a study from two scientists at Newcastle University, the Independent did not confirm whether the findings were borne out in colors chosen by men and women for iPod skins.

–posted by Associate Editor John Sullivan

Note: John Paczkowski is on vacation and won’t be writing or posting videos until he returns Monday, Aug. 27.

To keep you abreast of tech news while he’s away, we’re compiling a daily digest of 10 must-read tech stories. We’re calling it the Tech 10 and it appears below.

1. Although they made no jokes about their secret marriage, as did Apple’s Steve Jobs when he appeared with Microsoft’s Bill Gates at D5 in May, the CEO schmoozefest between Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and John Chambers of Cisco today in New York City yielded news of increased cooperation between the two tech giants, according to eWeek. Ballmer also deflected questions from moderator Charlie Rose about whether Microsoft was contemplating acquiring Yahoo, writes Elizabeth Montalbano of IDG News Service.
2. Adobe’s Media Player isn’t quite ready for show time: the eagerly awaited player won’t be fully released until next year. In an exclusive, Beet.TV’s Andy Plesser gets the word from an Adobe spokesman and posts a video interview with Adobe’s Chris Hock, head of its Flash media group.
3. Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks have chosen HD DVD over competing technology Blu-Ray as a means of releasing their DVD movie titles, according to FT.com. The decision heats up the DVD format battle, as media companies consider which technology provides a better viewing experience.
4. With little fanfare, Hewlett-Packard has debuted Cloudprint, a free service enabling users to print documents on any printer from almost any location worldwide. According to the New York Times, the innovation came after H-P wondered earlier this year how it might piggyback on the release of Apple’s iPhone.
5. Speaking of the iPhone (left), recycling is already catching on. This week, Apple is bringing out refurbished iPhones at the online Apple store. Engadget notes that the company is discounting the reconditioned handsets by $100 for both models.
6. Skype, reports the Register, is blaming its outage woes last week on a flood of users downloading a routine security patch. The VOIP provider has also issued an apology for the “unprecedented” service interruption, which for some users lasted into the weekend.
7. Google is flexing its muscle in China. Reuters reports that the search colossus has bought a stake in a Chinese community Web site called Tianya.cn. The move in the second-largest Internet market in the world marks Google’s growing interest in social networking.
8. Tilera Corp., a start-up in Silicon Valley, has revealed details of its 64-processor chip. The Wall Street Journal says that the chip and its underlying design could be used in products that have upward of a thousand calculating engines.
9. A multistage attack has left job-search site Monster.com reeling from a potentially huge stolen-data headache. Computerworld disclosed that more than 1.6 million records belonging to several hundred thousand people have been compromised by a Trojan horse program that could plant malware on their computers.



10. Who’s behind those mysterious edits to the entries on Wikipedia? Why, the very corporations written about. According to Wired, Wikipedia Scanner, a data-mining service launched earlier this month, has shown that millions of entry changes can be tracked to corporate “editors.”

–posted by Associate Editor John Sullivan

Looking over the trajectory of VMware’s IPO yesterday, you’d think we were still living in the go-go days of the late ’90s. Shares of the virtualization software-maker spiked nearly 76% in their first day of trading, defying the overall market slide and eclipsing Google’s historic 18% first-day gain in 2004. VMware’s shares ended the day at $51, or $22 higher than their offering price of $29. Today the company is worth some $19.1 billion, which makes it Silicon Valley’s third-largest software venture after Oracle and Adobe.

Little wonder the underwriters of VMware’s IPO exercised their overallotment option to purchase an additional 4,950,000 of the company’s shares.

The company’s performance yesterday “tells you that even in a market where stocks are selling off and investors have a negative view, that VMware stands out as a stock to own,” said Jefferies & Co. analyst Katherine Egbert. “The company is on a trajectory that mirrors Microsoft, Oracle and Veritas in the early days.”

Sure. But for how long? After all, VMWare may be best in breed, but it’s best in breed with limited competition. “Basically, for the last five to six years, VMware has had no competition,” Tom Bittman, a vice president and chief of research at Gartner, told eWeek. “The first real competition came when you had vendors developing Xen, open-source products, and then you are going to have Microsoft’s Viridian in beta later this year. I think Microsoft’s product is going to be a serious competitor to VMware, and Microsoft has also really improved its management technology.”