Here at Sanitarium.FM Towers, many of us have long believed that the reign of Flash was over and that use of Flash applets on the internet would soon die out. Youtube's latest announcement may have just guaranteed this eventuality by hitting it where it hurts, as Google announce it is dropping it as a standard video delivery format for Youtube in favour of HTML5.
HTML5 has long been heralded as the natural successor to Flash, as its presence as a standard all modern internet browsers strive to follow removes the need for external plugins; making it both more efficient and better supported across all of today's most relevant platforms - especially smartphones, some of which do not come with Flash support at all, but which DO have HTML5-capable browsers. HTML5 will also become the default delivery method for videos streamed using Safari 8, Internet Explorer 11, Chrome and the latest versions of Firefox.
However, just being capable of showing video out-of-the-box and on more devices, with less requirements than Flash doesn't seem to have been the only reason for the move. On the YouTube blog, YouTube Engineering Manager Richard Leider said that HTML5's adoption of adaptive bitrate (ABR) technology, which allows YouTube to dynamically alter video quality to suit the bandwidth available, was the real nail in the coffin for Flash support; as previously this was a capability of Flash alone. With HTML5 now able to adjust quality on the fly, videos should load quicker; and users should find themselves staring at a "buffering" icon much less often than before.
Moving to HTML5 will also allow YouTube to use the VP9 codec, which will allow 4K HD quality video running at 60FPS on capable hardware. Combined with WebRTV support for easy sharing of videos and video broadcasts, Flash's days may well finally be numbered. And that's a win-win for everyone - except the technology's owners, Adobe, who no doubt are having an urgent meeting as we speak.
