The end of Flash seems like an inevitability by now. Despite its owner, Adobe, calling the plugin dead, Flash seems to persist across the web. It’s clear that some nudges and pushes might be required to kill it if Adobe’s prediction of Flash’s demise by 2018 are to come true. And now it seems that Google has provided one more push today by disallowing Flash based ads from being uploaded after June 30 this year.
For Google Ads
Google Display Network and DoubleClick Digital Marketing will be completely ditching Flash for HTML5 by 2nd January 2017. That is, existing Flash ads will be removed from Google AdWords before this date. Google is encouraging advertisers to go for HTML5 when creating their ads instead of the outdated Flash.
The announcement today is just one of the many successive moves by Google against Flash. Not so long ago, Google announced that any Flash based content will be automatically paused in Chrome. YouTube let go of Flash in favor of HTML5 in January 2015. A month later, YouTube began converting ads to HTML5 on its own.
Flash Continues To Die Little By Little
Flash has been on its way out for years now. Not only has the plugin been repeatedly called a security hole, it has proven to be one with new vulnerabilities popping up every now and then. The internet has surely been distancing itself from Flash and similar plugins in favor of HTML based interactive solutions.
Google’s recent decree is one of the last nails in the coffin for Flash. Removing Flash from ads should have a big impact on its presence on the web as Google AdWords boasts a reach of 95.5 percent of desktop users worldwide. Google says this move aims “to enhance the browsing experience for more people on more devices” and will encourage marketers to ditch Flash ads before the aforementioned dates. Video ads built using Flash, however, will not be affected by this change. Though, don’t be surprised if Google announces a separate deadline for Flash based video ads as well.
The change may require advertisers to go through a learning curve, but it would surely make their jobs easier as HTML5 ads will work across all platforms; thus, eliminating the need of separate solutions for mobiles and desktops.
A year may seem like a long time, but Flash’s massive presence on the web is sure to take a long time and a big chunk of it will be gone early next year. Adobe recently launched Animate CC, its successor to Flash Professional Tool, clearly indicating what the future holds for animators.
