With each passing day major internet companies appear to be abandoning Adobe Flash support.
Back in January, Google dropped Flash as its default option for YouTube and has already fully transitioned to HTML5 on the platform. While on September 1, the internet search giant’s Chrome browser will cease supporting all media content created with Adobe Flash.
Similarly, Mozilla, which develops Firefox, now blocks ads created in known malevolent versions of Flash by default on its browser (known safe versions still load), in addition to Facebook’s CSO Alex Stamos tweeted on July 14 for Adobe to bring about the “end-of-life” for Flash.
https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/620306643360706561
In other words, Adobe Flash is being pushed out forcefully by the web’s major players and its exit will soon affect you.
For online publishers and advertisers, the drastic change means that each banner, landing page or site component which is generated as Flash content will soon no longer play on load in both Chrome and Firefox, two browsers that together account for nearly 66% of all online browser usage.
Why is this happening? The cause of the backlash against Adobe Flash, the once go-to software designed to take files and display them in a browser or on a website to play content like GIFs, animations, and videos, is due to the software having critical security vulnerabilities, system and browser instabilities, not to mention, lack of mobile support for its users. Many of you reading this have known this for years.
Throughout the 2015 summer, Adobe has been working to patch its program’s security flaws against a constant onslaught of hackers aiming to take advantage its “zero-day” vulnerabilities, whereby taking advantage meaning taking over your computer via Adobe Flash.
Zero-day vulnerabilities are program flaws which hackers exploit prior to being discovered by security professionals. But patching the problems can only get so far.
Confidence in the usability of Flash appears to be waning by the day in addition to being seen as inefficient for some time already. It’s time to begin considering life after Adobe Flash.
7 Things You Need to Know Going Forward
- HTML5 and JavaScript are the future of the internet. They are two browser languages which are reshaping and upgrading the internet.
- For developers HTML5 offers a much simpler coding experience due to the software’s add-ons and extras available. HTML5 is also much less expensive and accessible for developers to begin using than using Adobe Flash Professional CC.
- For internet users HTML5 brings a much smoother, rich and secure browser experience. Whereas Flash brought a cadre of security issues due to Adobe’s add-ons, HTML5 offers a much more stable and secure web experience.
- If you are online advertiser, begin learning how to create media in HTML5 by using systems such as Google Web Designer (The Beta System installation is already on your computer) or Google’s DoubleClick Studio System. Both are simple systems to use and offer very intuitive, high-quality products that provide a similar development experience to Flash (i.e., embedding videos, producing frames and more).
- If you are a publisher we recommend that you begin requesting from advertisers and agencies advertising creatives developed in HTML5.
- You can begin converting your Flash content to HTML5 files via systems such as https://developers.google.com/swiffy/
- Breathe and relax. If you need any assistance during this transition, whether you are an publisher or an advertiser, you are welcome to reach out to us below and we will assist you in any manner that we can.
Brian Blondy is the Marketing Manager at Total Media. You can contact Brian by email at or on LinkedIn