Adobe Systems, owner of Flash, has released a customised version of the Flash Player software that will allow Google (and other search engines) to see certain elements of Web pages embedded with Flash content in the same way a human would.

Search Engines currently have a difficult time “seeing” non-text formats such as Flash, which can lead to sites that make heavy use of the technology being ‘penalised’ in terms of their indexing.

Adobe’s new tool will help crawlers navigate dynamic Flash pages more easily. Google’s crawlers, for instance, will be able to click buttons along the way and remember the information for the index.

Google is already using the new tool and Yahoo plans to soon. Adobe also plans to extend support to other search engines.

Acrobat allows users to package documents so they can be read across different hardware and operating systems.

Acrobat 9 comes with Adobe’s video-enabling software Flash. Users can include Flash-based videos when they create and share documents with the portable document format, commonly known as PDF.

With a professional version of Acrobat 9, for example, users could package a Power Point presentation not just with images, but also with an audio of the presenter’s voice.

“You can now send someone a presentation that speaks on its own all through a PDF,” said Adobe spokesman Kevin M. Lynch, who is not related to the company’s chief technology officer with the same name.

Adobe also launched Acrobat.com, which will host Web-based software services to support document creation and sharing.

The San Jose-based software maker hasn’t launched a new version of Acrobat since November 2006, almost a year after it purchased Macromedia, the creator of Flash software. Users have expected to see Flash integrated into Acrobat since that purchase, Lynch said.

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The company released beta versions of its Dreamworks Web site creation software, Fireworks graphics program and Soundbooth audio editing program on its Adobe Labs site.

The beta software is available for free download.

Adobe has yet to start public trials of the CS4 versions of other programs in the CS4 suite, which includes Photoshop and Illustrator.

Adobe declined to comment on when it will release CS4, saying that doing so could hurt CS3 sales because customers would hold off on purchases so that they can get the latest features from CS4.

According to Mark Cokes, marketing manager A/NZ at Adobe, the service enables businesses that may not have the budget to purchase the entire suite to utilise Adobe software on a subscription basis. He commented that this provides opportunities for resellers to approach a new range of customers.

“This service is ideal for those who don’t want to shell out the full price of the product suite, particularly small businesses, project workers and training companies,” he said.

From May 1 resellers will stock Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium Subscription Edition, which will cost customers $129 per month for a 12-month contract. Australia will be the first and currently only country that has been offered the subscription service, claimed Cokes. The suite will also be available for AU$199 month-to-month.

“So far it’s been received well, we’re receiving a major shipment next week so we’ll see how it goes,” he said.