Adobe Adds Yahoo Search Bar to Acrobat

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) announced a partnership this morning in which each will leverage the other's user groups.

When Adobe windows pop up on computer monitors and laptop screens, prompting consumers to update their Adobe packages, they now will have the opportunity to download Yahoo's desktop search toolbar, too.

Clearing Up Confusions

The companies say this will provide convenience to PDF viewers confused by terminology or concepts in the documents. "If you're operating within a document within Reader, you just type the term in the toolbar," said Mike Trigg, an analyst with Morningstar.

The toolbar will enable the quick conversion of HTML content to the PDF format for offline viewing, easy e-mail sharing and file archiving.

"It's an easier way to go from offline to online," Trigg told TechNewsWorld.

Going at Google

The toolbar will include access to other Yahoo products such as AntiSpy and PopUp Blocker and services as well as to Adobe's Web-based subscription services. In the future, all Adobe downloads will feature Yahoo as the preferred Web search engine.

Yahoo may glow in the halo effect of the popular Adobe Acrobat Reader, installed on more than 500 million computers. At 274 million users, Yahoo will leverage the partnership to try to oust Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) and MSN from their seats of strength in the Web search space.

Exposure for Adobe

"And basically from Adobe's perspective, a key part of their strategy is to spread the proliferation of Acrobat. This adds functionality, and it's giving them exposure to Yahoo's users," said Trigg.

"Part of Adobe's strategy is to build partnerships with other great technology companies. This is the most recent example of that," he said, one that might deliver the significant revenue that the others have lacked to this point.