Adobe said to be creating VoIP Flash team

Word is that Adobe has started a secret team to beef up the voice over Internet Protocol capabilities in Flash, a move that would make VoIP accessible to Flash developers, according to a handful of Web sites.

Blogger Om Malik posted an item on Friday about Adobe's plans, pointing out that Adobe's Flash is widely used in high-volume video-sharing sites like YouTube. Adobe has created a team to productize the voice over IP work, Malik reported.

With that cat out of the bag, a VoIP blogger at TMC Net posted the contents of an interview with an unnamed Adobe executive describing the company's plans in more detail.

An Adobe representative on Monday would not comment on the reports, saying the company does not comment on unannounced products or technologies.

Building VoIP into the Flash Player could have a big impact on the adoption VoIP within Web applications. The Flash Player is widely installed and there are a large number of Web developers who use Flash.

Last week, Adobe announced plans for its Flash-based Web conferencing product, formerly called Macromedia Breeze. With VoIP built into the Flash Player, Adobe could allow people to start a VoIP phone call while collaborating on a common document over the Web.