CHROME BLOCKS FLASH
Unless you’re a masochist, you hate the Adobe Flash Player. If Google Chrome is your browser, though, you’ve had to live with it anyway.
This is about to change. For at least a year, Google has planned to replace Flash with HTML5. Yesterday, Google publicized several details of the plan, which includes blocking any Flash content that loads ‘behind the scenes’-about 90% of the Flash content on the web- beginning in September. In December, HTML5 will be the default player for games and video, except on sites that support only Flash.
The Flash Player has been in decline for several years. Its slump has only accelerated recently, and is likely to continue. In addition to Chrome, Microsoft’s Edge and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers are planning to reduce or eliminate their use of plug-ins like Flash in favor of HTML5.
Though Flash is still incorporated into the Chrome browser by default, Google has been steadily reducing its scope. In September 2015, Chrome 45 began pausing “less important” Flash content automatically. This “less important” content is chiefly animation, ads, and anything else not “central to the webpage”.
Flash is widely reviled for slowing the loading of requested content, consuming too much data and memory, radically reducing battery life, and being dangerously insecure. New vulnerabilities seem to surface every few weeks.
Once Google makes HTML5 the default player for Chrome, Flash will be available only for the websites that run only on Flash. Visitors to such sites will be prompted to enable it, and will be given the options for it: run once, always run, or never run (see the enclosed image).
Chrome is the most popular web browser on the market. According to the federal government, it handles more than 34% of all website visits. Internet Explorer (now Edge) is in second place, with just over 28%. Apple’s Safari is in third place, with just over 20%. Firefox is fourth, with 11%.
(Regardless of what browser you use, you need a reliable internet connection. Talk to us. We can help.)