Adobe Flash To Be Discontinued Due To Persistent Issues

Flash used to be cool. You could create games, interactive elements and animations which engaged visitors and kept them on your website longer. YouTube even used Flash. Now, major browsers, such as Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Firefox and Safari, all block Flash by default.

Unfortunately, Adobe’s Flash is a security risk now. Steve Jobs said in 2009 the main reason Macs crash is Flash, which is why iPhone, iPod and iPad users couldn’t play Flash games. Holes in Flash’s security have infected users with annoying ads and malware. Most develops today see Flash as a security nightmare. One of the most annoying problems was popups encouraging the user to download an Adobe Flash update. People got a legit version of Adobe Flash along with dangerous malware.

Google won't index Flash content soon and Adobe is ending support for it in December 2020. Webmasters who built Flash site will have to switch to HTML5 technologies or risk having all or part of their website deindexed. Bing hasn't made any announcement yet. Since fewer than five percent of sites have any Flash content, Google's announcement shouldn't impact too many people's search results. Most of the sites still using Flash are dormant and will just die off, but there are a few where the webmasters cannot afford to replace Flash objects.

Flash is clunky, slows browsers down and drains batteries, but some of us have our favorite Flash games which develops may not want to convert. There is the Flashpoint preservation project, a movement to preserve games so people can play them offline. This may or not be legal, but no one seems to care. Many large game developers appear ready to let all their hard work die off but gaming communities want to save as many Flash games as possible. For more information click here https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/10/goodbye-flash.html.