It is almost surreal that we are living in an age where we are seeing a gradual phasing out of Adobe Flash from the World Wide Web. It was the de-facto way to play animations and videos in browsers and browsers often prompted people to install it in order to make sure their internet experience is “complete”
However, Flash is still persistent in the world wide web due to its first implementation during the desktop age. As people started browsing the web from mobile devices, it became necessary to phase out the standard due to its inherent vulnerabilities in terms of security and high resource use. Steve Jobs wrote a famous blogpost of his issue with Flash and he campaigned against its use and championed its eventual phasing out for the newer HTML5.
Now Google is now the latest company to phase out Flash from their online assets. Google makes most of its money from ads and they were based on Adobe Flash. From a statement posted on their AdWords Google+ page, they will phase out the use of flash ads in two phases:
“Starting June 30th 2016, display ads built in Flash can no longer be uploaded into AdWords and DoubleClick Digital Marketing. Starting January 2nd 2017, display ads in the Flash format can no longer run in the Google Display Network or through DoubleClick.”
Google now implores advertisers to update their flash based ads to HTML5 ones before the said dates. Video ads based on Flash are the exception to this case and Google informs that they won’t be affected at this time.
Is this the final nail to the coffin on Flash? It seems so due to the fact Google commands a huge audience with their Google ads and this action will significantly reduce the presence of Flash on the web.
