Google: Flash is out, HTML5 is in, for good

Feb 9, 2016 22:03 GMT  ·  By

The long-awaited announcement is here, and Google has put a timeline on Flash's demise from its advertising platform, thus revealing its plan to stop showing static Flash ads starting January 2, 2017.

During the past few years, Google has continually dropped hints here and there about the fact that it intends to move to HTML5 for its ads platform, the main cash cow for all of its other business ventures.

The biggest move in direction was made last year, in February, when the company announced it was starting to automatically convert Flash ads to HTML5, where possible.

Google will stop accepting Flash ads in June 2016

A full year later, Google has made it official and said that, starting June 30, 2016, its advertising platform will stop accepting new ad submissions in Flash format. This includes both the AdWords and DoubleClick Digital Marketing platforms.

As existing ads and campaigns will expire, Google plans to stop showing static Flash ads altogether beginning January 2, 2017.

The only exception to this rule is Flash-based video ads, which will not be impacted by this change, mainly because HTML5 video, even if supported by most browsers, is not at the same level of performance, stability and customization when compared to what Flash videos can provide.

In the meantime, Google urges all customers to take advantage of its Flash-to-HTML5 conversion utilities and get rid of the much-maligned Flash code from their ads.

HTML5 is not a security panacea

While Flash Player has been plagued by a plethora of security problems during the past years, the threat of malicious ads, also known as malvertising, won't go away by removing support for Flash ads.

Malvertising can also be carried out via JavaScript code, and the only protection known to work until now is having an ad blocker installed on your browser.

It's a good thing that Google is dropping Flash for HTML5, but let's not get ahead of ourselves, Flash will continue to remain a popular runtime regardless, and HTML5 does not guarantee a safer Web experience either.

As an example, researchers at two Italian universities in Rome and Salerno showed last summer that many of HTML5's APIs could be used to carry out hidden drive-by downloads and spread malware.

Last August, Amazon also announced it would stop displaying Flash ads on its advertising network starting the very next month, September 2015.