In a post on the Chromium-dev Google group, plans were announced to further phase out Flash in the Chrome browser by the fourth quarter of this year. Inspired by the “maturity of HTML5 and its ability to deliver an excellent user experience,” the browser wants to block any notice of Flash on a website if HTML5 can be used instead. Only if a website truly requires Flash will the browser display an option to allow it to run.
The post also states that the browser will give the top ten Flash-heavy websites a temporary reprieve from the changes for one year. One the list of those websites Google’s own YouTube comes in first, followed by Facebook and Yahoo.
Chromium, it should be noted, is the open-source web browser from which Chrome draws its source code. Chromium is a project, and Chrome is the official stable release. This means that while these changes are not officially guaranteed, they are highly likely — especially given the fact that Flash has been languishing for years.
“While Flash historically has been critical for rich media on the web,” says the post, “today in many cases HTML5 provides a more integrated media experience with faster load times and lower power consumption.”
It also notes that Chrome will work closely with Adobe (Flash’s creator) to “keep moving the web platform forward, in particularly paying close attention to web gaming.”
There isn’t likely to be much contention when it comes to these changes, however, as Adobe has begun to distance itself from its once-popular technology, even going so far as to encourage developers to build with newer web standards this past December.
Related reading: Adobe rebrands Flash as Adobe Animate CC conceding to the popularity of HTML5
[source]Chromium[/source]
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