Sam Oliver
Search giant Google added another board to Flash's coffin on Tuesday with the announcement that it would warn users searching from mobile devices — like Apple's iPhone or Android handsets — when the contents of a search result were "mostly Flash."
Rather than returning the website's description, Google will now tell mobile users that the site uses Flash and may not work on their device, before offering them the option to continue anyway. The announcement was first noticed by iClarified.
Google says that content which cannot be displayed on a mobile device — like Flash — is a "common annoyance" for mobile users. The company goes on to suggest that developers should eschew proprietary formats like Flash in favor of more widely-implemented standards such as HTML5.
"Fortunately, making websites that work on all modern devices is not that hard: websites can use HTML5 since it is universally supported, sometimes exclusively, by all devices," Google's announcement reads.
Apple's decision not to support Flash on its then-nascent iOS devices was a major point of contention even before late Apple CEO Steve Jobs penned his famous "thoughts on Flash" letter, with many panning the decision as short-sighted. The choice has since proven prophetic, however, with Flash's popularity waning thanks in no small part to developers' need to accomodate the massive popularity of the iPhone and iPad.
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48 Comments
The choice has since proven prophetic, however, with Flash's popularity waning thanks in no small part to developers' need to accomodate the massive popularity of the iPhone and iPad.
This should read: "the massive popularity of smartphones and tablets including the iPhone and iPad" since the number of Android based devices is substantial.
Flash cannot die fast enough.
Prophetic to say the least.
Steve, along with Apple got blasted for not supporting Flash and they also caught quite a bit of slack for making their iPad 4:3 aspect ratio.
Today we are seeing Flash's march into irrelevance and Microsoft changing the Surface's aspect ratio from 16:9 to something like 3:2. Others are also following.
I wonder if Apple engineers are somewhere sharing a good laugh, since they had it right, from the start.
[quote name="mpantone" url="/t/181376/google-now-warns-iphone-users-when-search-results-contain-adobe-flash#post_2564354"][COLOR=000000][COLOR=181818]This should read: "the massive popularity of smartphones and tablets including the iPhone and iPad" since the number of Android based devices is substantial.[/COLOR][/COLOR] [COLOR=000000][COLOR=181818]Flash cannot die fast enough.[/COLOR][/COLOR] [/quote] No. The death of Adobe Flash should be attributed almost singularly to Apple. Google Android proponents derided the lack of Adobe Flash support on Apple iPhones for years before finally accepting reality. Another indication of Google Android proponents disconnect with reality; support for the supposedly open Google Android and support for proprietary Adobe Flash.
Adobe abandoned Flash on all mobile platforms in November 2011.
It's possible that some of the Google Android proponents are living in a dreamworld, denying that Flash support was dropped almost three years ago.
That said, Joe Consumer using an Android device today doesn't know anything about this brouhaha. They just know that Flash doesn't work on their device.
'Put another nail in someone's coffin', I am familiar with but not "added another board to someone's coffin" I must remember that, it's new one on me. As it's Flash I hope they keep adding both. :)