RIP Adobe Flash: Google, Amazon Dump Auto-Playing Flash Ads, Steve Jobs’ Prophecy Comes True
This is one of those redefining moments for the Internet industry: Effective September 1st, Adobe Flash will be almost history. Google and Amazon, two of the world’s largest Internet companies, have announced that they will no longer support Adobe Flash advertisements on their platform.
A death knell for Adobe Flash, whose history is almost as old as the Internet itself!..
Google: Bye Bye Adobe Flash
Via Google+ post, Google Adwords team has shared that their web browser Chrome will no longer support auto playing flash ads from September 1st.
This is not a knee jerk reaction though, because in the month of June, Google had offered a new setting on Chrome which paused all Flash based advertisement content on Chrome. September onwards, this setting would become default, hence permanently blocking Adobe Flash on their browsers.
If you are an Adwords advertiser, then this holds special importance. Earlier, Google Adwords used to automatically convert all flash based ads into HTML 5 format, but henceforth, advertisers will be required to manually convert the flash ads into HTML 5 before making them live.
Here is a short guide which can help advertisers to convert Flash ads into HTML5.
Amazon: No More Adobe Flash
Advertising team of Amazon has issued a notice on their website, whereby all advertisers are informed that September 1st onwards, they will no longer accept Adobe Flash (swf files).
Amazon has categorically stated that this decision comes after Google Chrome, Firefox Mozilla and Apple Safari have blocked Flash based advertising content on their respective browsers.
The notice said, “This change ensures customers continue to have a positive, consistent experience on Amazon, and that display ads function properly for optimal performance..”
Prophecy of Steve Jobs in 2010: Why Adobe Flash Will Die A Natural Death
Way back in 2010, Apple founder Steve Jobs had written a lengthy article titled “Thoughts on Flash”, which basically was an explanation why Apple had stopped displaying Adobe Flash content on their iPhone, iPad and iPods. The article was regarded as a prophecy on the death of Adobe Flash as we know it.
And now, this prophecy has finally became the truth.
In that article, Steve had mentioned several reasons which convinced that Adobe Flash would die a natural death:
- Flash is not ‘Open’
- Flash is not ‘full web’, as most of the videos are available on different formats now (In 2010)
- Flash doesn’t provide reliability, security and performance
- Flash consumes much battery life
- Flash is a PC era technology, which has no relevance for ‘Touch based’ mobile interface (yes, he said it in 2010!)
- Customizing Flash is a pain, and doesn’t suit the new Web based interface platform
In the end, Steve had said, “New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.”
Here is an interesting ‘Nostalgic Rummage’ through the history of Flash; and here is the proof that Adobe themselves are now ditching Flash and moving towards HTML 5 platform. Here is some more on the Apple vs Adobe Flash controversy, which becomes more interesting than ever.
[Image Source: Shutterstock.com]
