Those in the development world have probably heard the buzz in recent years about the inevitable waning of Adobe Flash Player. Although Flash allows developers to create eye-catching websites, in the world of the web where speed means virtually everything, Flash has literally lagged behind. As more and more individuals take to the web, particularly with mobile devices, users are simply not willing to wait for slow page loads no matter how eye-pleasing the results might be.
Starting in January of 2017, Google will begin to get serious about enforcing the switch from Flash to HTML5. For those who use Google’s Chrome browser, whenever they visit a new website they will be asked whether they want to use Flash. In the following month, with the newest iteration of their browser, Google will ask users before any Flash components run on a visited page. Google’s goal is by October of 2017, all websites will load HTML5 by default. If any user still wants to use Flash they will have to physical enable Flash in order to do so.
So why the push for HTML5 instead of Flash? When HTML5 came out in 2008 with features that allowed for playing audio and video within web pages, the handwriting was probably on the wall at that point for the demise of Flash. HTML5 is extremely flexible in that in runs on not just desktops and laptops, but the plethora of mobile devices now in use as well. It also has excellent performance on multiple platforms including Mac OS X and Linux. HTML5 can render multimedia content on all these devices and platforms without the requirement of a plugin or player application. As mentioned earlier, HTML5 is also capable of significantly faster page loads which enhances user experience. With all this increased flexibility and efficiency, it becomes difficult to make a case for a continued reliance on Flash. Using HTML5 instead of Flash, allows organizations to increase their audience on the web and that is a key component of growth for any organization.
Questions about how to implement HTML5 throughout your website? Contact us.
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