Google and Adobe have signed a deal to distribute each other's software tools, following yesterday's announcement that Adobe will bundle the Google Toolbar with its Shockwave Player. 

The multi-year agreement will see Adobe distributing the Google Toolbar with a variety of its products.

Google in return will bundle Adobe's Shockwave Player for users who download the Toolbar from its website.

The Google Toolbar will initially be bundled with Shockwave downloads only, but the deal is set to expand to additional products over time, the firms said. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal offers both companies a way to circumvent Microsoft's grip on the market for desktop operating systems.

The Google Toolbar is a feature for Internet Explorer that allows users to perform search queries directly from browser. It offers Google a way to increase its overall web traffic.

Adobe's Shockwave technology allows websites to embed multimedia. Adobe develops applications that allow developers to create Shockwave applications.

By increasing the number of Shockwave enabled systems, the technology becomes more appealing to developers and could therefore drive sales.

Google has a similar bundling deal with Sun Microsystems. The two companies revealed last October that Sun will bundle the Google Toolbar with its Java Runtime Environment.