When the flash plugin came to the browser it completely changed everything. The browsing experience became much more interactive with on page video, moving pictures, graphical menus, and animations that pictures just couldn't compete with. Still today flash dominates many popular websites like YouTube as the videos are shown in that format.
There really isn't anything wrong with flash at all. Some complain about it being a bit too bulky because it does use quite a few resources to accomplish it's tasks compared to other formats. One bit of concern is that it's a proprietary format that is owned by a single company where elements of it are on most web pages.
Soon flash might be gradually replaced with HTML5 standards. It won't go away overnight but the functionality of it could be over the next few years. Many sites will still be using flash so the plugin will be needed, but as the internet develops with new standards it will be depended upon much less.
HTML5 is going to be the next web standard following the current HTML4. It takes time for these standards to mature because many different groups and browsers have to agree on the standards individually before going forward. HTML5 is almost finished and is now in testing mode on many browsers.
One functionality in HTML5 will be much like flash already is by default. This means that sites like YouTube can play in different formats than flash and still be able to run the videos fine. Currently there is a plugin for Chrome that will show how this functionality works.
In the coming years, features that flash is popular for might be replaced. Other groups like browsers and web development have incentive to get off of a platform that is controlled by one company. While Adobe probably isn't going to do anything sneaky the risk is there.
No comments:
Post a Comment