Stepping up the heated battle of online search and services, Yahoo Inc and Adobe Systems Inc have joined forces to tap each others' customers and put Web search features into Adobe's popular Acrobat Reader software.
The broad strategic relationship to be announced yesterday is Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo's latest maneuver against chief rivals Google Inc and Microsoft Corp in the fight to become the gateway of search and Web access on as many desktops as possible.
For San Jose, California-based Adobe, the partnership will add online features to one of the software maker's core products, Acrobat.
The program is used by more than 500 million people and has become a common format for viewing documents over the Web and in e-mail attachments.
Browser toolbar
Under the deal, Adobe will first introduce a co-branded Yahoo browser toolbar that users can choose to install on their computers when prompted to download an update of Acrobat Reader.
The toolbar -- an increasingly popular method of online search engines to stay constantly visible on a user's Internet browser -- will feature links to Yahoo products and services as well as Adobe's Web-based subscription service that lets people convert documents into the Adobe PDF file format.
Later, the companies said, the toolbar will add features such as the ability to quickly convert Web-based content into Adobe PDF files.
Yahoo search will also be built into a future version of the Acrobat Reader, allowing users to search for more information from within the document without going through the extra steps of launching a Web browser.
"We call it being available at the point of inspiration," said Tim Cadogan, Yahoo's vice president of search.
Web-desktop bridge
The products will further bridge the worlds of online and off-line content, said Pam Deziel, a director of product marketing for Adobe Acrobat.
That's a goal Adobe has been trying to achieve recently in many of its products as it strives to expand its software tools beyond the off-line desktop publishing space into the powerful realm of the Internet.
Yahoo and its Internet rivals are headed in a similar multifaceted direction. Google, for instance, recently introduced software that lets users search for files stored on their computers.
"We're seeing an Internet portal battleground toward the desktop, and Yahoo and Google in particular will be slugging it out over the next few years," said Tim Hickernell, a vice president at market research firm Meta Group.
"Yahoo is a winner here by picking up a distribution channel through Adobe," he said.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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