The world’s biggest search engine company, Google has planned to ditch the Adobe Flash Player by the end of this year.
The deal is to block the Flash and use only HTML5. This will be done as by default for all the websites that will be browsed in the Chrome browser. This seems to be done to possibly increase the security aspect of the users. Google plans to launch a “HTML5 by default”. This reportedly seems like the Google Chrome browser will work under a design or plan where only HTML5 will be used on all the websites, instead of continuing with the Adobe Flash Player, which needs to be activated first. The possible reason to abandon this long relation is probably due to the vulnerability issues of the Flash Player.
The Flash Player could also have been dumped in a bid to earn more developers into adopting HTML5. Though Google has planned of phasing out the Flash Player in Chrome by the fourth quarter, the outcome might be like Flash being bundled with Google Chrome, but its existence will not be disclosed by default. This comes into consideration since many sites are still using the Flash Player and it cannot be blocked completely, so it is being discouraged rather than being junked by completely Chrome. Google will now promote HTML5, which will provide quicker load times and also consumes very less power comparatively. So, if HTML5 was being used by a website, it will be made the default wing that will be experienced by HTML5 only. IF a site has been running on the Adobe Flash Player for a long time and cannot work without it, then the users will be prompted by Google to continue the plug-in run for that domain itself.
Google also mentions that a track of the domains will be kept by Chrome, where the user has manually opted for Flash and attempts to open it automatically when the user subsequently visits this website next time. Moreover, Google has listed down the names of 10 websites which are the most used white-listed and that run Flash, to avoid over-surges. These white-listed companies are the Facebook, YouTube, Amazon, Yahoo, Live.com, Yandex.ru, Twitch.tv, VK.com, OK.ru, and Mail.ru. All these websites will have the Flash Player running on it as always without any obstacles. However, these websites will be expected to anyway shift to HTML5 by the end of 2017, since the white-list will expire in one year.
Google will also disallow users from downloading the Flash player, by nabbing the links that redirect them to the download page. A few websites for example like the Pandora, requests the users to download the Flash Player and then redirects them to the page for Adobe installations. Once the user clicks on the link to download, Chrome will deflect the request, revoke the navigation, and will now instead prompt a yellow info bar for “Allow Flash Player” on the top. This is a sole attempt just to make the user rethink about using Flash.
There is an option for Enterprise users, wherein Chrome will allow a setting for “Always run Flash content”, for the intranet sites that may probably use Flash Player. Though Google is doing everything that is possible to do away with the Adobe Flash Player, there are a few interesting, innovative and bilateral gaming sites that are heavily dependent on the Flash Player. The changing of the domain for such sites from Flash to HTML5 might be a tedious task. Though Chrome seems to be getting rid of Flash by running it on click-to-play grounds, the Web is not yet ready to completely discourage and give the boot to the Adobe Flash Player yet.