Google’s Chrome browser cozies up to Adobe’s Flash

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Despite being left out of Apple’s iPhone and soon-to-be-released iPad, Adobe is cutting deals with Google while hard at work on the next version of the Flash browser plug-in.

Google announced plans on Tuesday to directly integrate Flash into all versions of the Chrome browser. The Internet giant is currently testing a browser that comes packaged with Adobe’s multimedia enabler, which powers most of the video and games on the Web, including YouTube, in a release to developers.

Google says it’s working with Adobe and Mozilla -- maker of Firefox, the No. 2 browser -- to define the next generation of Web plug-ins. No mention of Apple or Microsoft, which makes the No. 1 browser Internet Explorer.

The new Flash integration gives a taste of what those future features might be. Downloading Chrome will include the most recent version of Flash, and the browser updater will also search for new versions of the plug-in. In current browsers, the user must manually download new releases of Flash from Adobe’s website.

As we noted on Monday addressing rumors of a Google-Adobe partnership, the search giant has worked with Adobe for some time. The deal is likely unrelated to any hostility toward Apple from Google and Adobe.

-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian