The day the web went dark
So it got me thinking: “What if Flash Player was disabled for a day?”.
First of all, advertising on the web would be a lot less interesting and thus a lot less appealing to advertisers. How many sites do you visit on a day to day basis that rely on advertisers to pay their bills? Sure… Some people would have a field day if sites would show less advertising but the reality of this world is that bills have to be paid.
Would you miss using Google Street View? Would you miss listening to your favorite artists on Pandora, Finetune or Last.FM? What about video? Would you miss not being able to just click the play button to watch a video on YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr or Facebook? Would you miss playing casual games on the web? Would you miss not being able to IM your friends on the Yahoo Webmessenger? Would you miss checking out the website for the latest movies and games? Would you miss watching a free episode of your favorite TV show on Hulu? Would you miss using free web apps like Picnik, Aviary, Photoshop.com and Sumopaint to edit your photos?
Yes… I know… I’ll say it again: Adobe pays my paycheck. But I’ve been a supporter of Flash for more than a decade now (long before I joined Adobe). Flash made the web a lot less dull. We’ve long passed the early skip intro days of Flash and it is now a mature platform that allows developers to build engaging sites and applications. Sites and apps you probably use every day…
Flash on!
November 4, 2009 - 10:50 am
Totally agree. And one thing the HTML5 fanbois seem to forget is that if it really was to replace Flash one day (it won’t) then you can be sure that the ads will be just as annoying and intrusive as Flash can be. What to do then? Install the HTML5-blocker Firefox add-on?
Flash, just like any other technology, has its place on today’s and tomorrow’s interweb. And I’m glad about that.
November 4, 2009 - 11:05 am
All true. Also agreed with Stefan above. W3C and browsers are far away from implementing these things and we all know who has got the the show-stopper product there. HTML5 supporters don’t realise what they are actually comparing and until they don’t it we shouldn’t really bother.
There has been few malfunctions Re Flash Player in WebKit in the last 6 or so months and I can tell you my friends, it’s more than just not being able to get around YouTube. It involves tools like Google Analytics, the tools that are mandatory for those very SEO types who deny Flash usage in any possible form. So whatever a bloke here and there is telling about the whole thing, it undeniable makes a big chunk of the virtual web life today. Emphasis on life.
November 4, 2009 - 11:21 am
I humbly disagree. Not because I think that Flash isn’t important. Because I think removing anything for the sake to see its value is counterproductive.
Flash filled a gap which many tried to fill, Adobe (or Macromedia) filled it the best way. Its a huge success in a strong competition I agree. And I like what they archieved. After all I grew up with it.
Never the less. Some years ago, when the (at that time) oldest company of the world (around 900 years if I remember properly) went bankrupt, It became clear that things are – no matter how good they are – going to be caught up by time. Because others are doing their job better. Even with (or maybe because) less experience.
I prefer a lot of things to find its way to HTML 5 because it means that the competition just went on to the next level. Good thing if you ask me.
November 4, 2009 - 12:01 pm
Well, Martin, HTML5 vs Flash is somewhat a similar topic to PC vs Mac or Flash Platform vs Silverlight with both sides passionately backing their tech. On this case though, it’s more twisted than any of the above-mentioned.
The reality is, Flash Platform (and I’m intentionally using this term) is moving forward faster than any of the W3C Working Drafts not even discussing the time necessary for browser vendors to pick them up. So the fact remains, despite WebKit passing 100% of Acid3 (and it’s absolutely fantastic), it totals below 10% of the whole browser market.
Surely there were doubts about the Flash Platform as Adobe took it over from Macromedia and many predicted the fall of it at the time. None of it happened, and instead, we are seeing more than just some browser plugin. On the smartphone app stack for instance.
November 4, 2009 - 12:08 pm
“We need 1 day when the Flash player is disabled just to appreciate how it lights up the web“
we can already experience this on the iPhone for 365days a year ;)
November 4, 2009 - 12:36 pm
finty, while you’re absolutely correct and spot on, this is Apple’s fail in full since the business model of iPhone is tightly tied to its money making machine. A competitive app framework directly available on the iPhone OS would obviously threaten to cut off some of that pie. Thus Adobe’s efforts to export for iPhone from the upcoming CS 5. Try the CS5-exported FickleBlox on your iPhone. Rather addictive game I must add :)
November 4, 2009 - 3:09 pm
Perhaps this day would be very good for the environment too, because Flash is so incredibly processor intensive!
November 4, 2009 - 3:31 pm
That also highly depends on what the application does and how it was built… You can build CPU intensive applications with any technology.
November 4, 2009 - 4:57 pm
I haven’t Flash on my 64 system. This make me angry :S
November 4, 2009 - 7:13 pm
It would be interesting. Although I’d be glad to see those annoying flash ads that blink, talk, and animate gone forever.
November 4, 2009 - 7:31 pm
I think it’s pretty lame for Adobe to allow this kind of stupid arrogent rubbish on their web page. Someone in marketing should be fired. If that’s the attitude in adobe especially when they can’t provide flash for windows 7 64 bit and insist on being as arrogent as Apple, the future for adobe is not bright.
Also that stupid endless music is really annoying.
November 5, 2009 - 9:44 am
No matter how you look at it Rob and Serge are right.
Love it or hate it but if you would pull the plug out of the Flash player the web would go dark…
I’d rather be in the light!