How Security Flaws, HTML5 Sent Adobe Flash Into Decline

Google’s announcement that it will start to blacklist Flash in its Chrome browser is just the latest step in the long decline of the multimedia software.

Adobe’s Flash became a hit on the Internet in the late-1990s. The technology offered an easy-to-use interface for developers to enliven Websites with graphics and animation. Better yet, the technology provided a backbone for interactive entertainment, including browser-based games. Flash, in other words, was what the Internet needed at that time to get past so-called “Web 1.0.” It just couldn’t quite hold up over the long term.

Security has been the biggest issue with Flash. The technology became a favorite target for malicious hackers, and the result was an extremely high number of zero-day vulnerabilities. To its credit, Adobe has gotten better at finding issues and fixing issues, but it’s fighting a never-ending battle as hackers continue to find new ways to exploit Flash vulnerabilities.

Another frequent complaint about Flash is that it puts a strain on the performance and battery life of many PCs and mobile devices. Flash has for years been cited for sucking power out of devices due to inefficiencies in its code, and software developers, PC makers and mobile device designers have all derided the technology for that. Those issues, coupled with the security problems, caused outcry in the 2000s, leading to the fallout we’re seeing now.

No one was a bigger critic of Flash than co-founder Steve Jobs. He issued a public letter in 2010, banning Flash from the company’s iOS platform. He argued at the time that Flash was insecure and caused too many performance problems and said better alternatives were available. Since then, Flash has been blocked on all iOS devices.

The better alternative Jobs was talking about in his attack on Flash was HTML5. That technology, which has been adopted on the Web in considerably less time than some had imagined, has effectively become the replacement for Flash. That’s not only because of the security vulnerabilities of Flash, but also because it’s far more efficient on different device types. Those two issues alone have allowed it to be rapidly embraced by the developer community.

Even Adobe has been forced to acknowledge that perhaps Flash isn’t what’s best for Internet users nowadays. The company has publicly supported HTML5 and, in 2011, said that it was abandoning mobile platforms altogether to focus on the Flash alternative. Since then, Adobe has encouraged Internet users and developers to move to HTML5, citing its superiority over Flash

One of the most important moments in Flash’s history was when YouTube, one of the most popular video platforms in the world, decided it was time to move on from Flash. YouTube was an early tester of HTML5, and it officially started running its videos on this platform last year. Once a top Web destination such as YouTube stops supporting Flash, its future is bleak, to say the least.

YouTube and Apple aren’t the only companies to have turned their backs on Flash. Microsoft made its position known in 2012 by abandoning its support for Flash plug-ins. Other prominent browsers, including Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera, have in one way or another stopped supporting Flash or encouraged people to use other platforms. It’s clear that the Web community sees little future in the Adobe technology.

Google has slowly but surely been turning its back on Flash. The company first stopped displaying Flash-based ads and now says that it will end support for Flash Websites, unless a user specifically asks to see them. While it has whitelisted just 10 sites for Flash support, chances are, in the coming years, even those sites will lose support. In Google’s mind, apparently, Flash is dead.

Despite the industry’s stance on Flash, there are no signs that it’ll actually “die” anytime soon. According to data collected by W3Techs, which analyzes Flash usage trends, 8.6 percent of Websites are still using the technology. While that’s down from more than 11 percent a year ago, that figure still represents millions of Websites. So, while Google’s move might be another nail in Flash’s coffin, it’s by no means the final nail.