Dive Brief:
- Beginning Sept. 1, Flash content not central to a webpage will be automatically blocked by the Chrome browser.
- The industry knew the move was coming, but the implementation comes soon after Amazon announced it was dropping Flash support on its website and ad platform.
- Marketers are impacted because Flash ads will now be blocked by default by Chrome users.
Dive Insight:
D-day for Flash on Chrome is about to arrive. Beginning tomorrow the browser will automatically block any Flash content deemed not central to the webpage. For marketers this means any rich media ads built in Flash will no longer appear as expected unless users actively choose to view Flash content. If users want to see more of the Flash animation, they can still click on it to resume viewing.
Flash has undergone a rough year with many calls for its demise including being cut by default by Firefox, Amazon announcing it is dropping Flash support on its website and ad platform, and Facebook’s chief of security calling for a “kill date” for the browser plug-in. And a cyber-crime attack in July exploited a Flash vulnerability that allowed Yahoo user’s computers to be hijacked.
Publicly Google’s move isn’t based on security issues, but rather based on increased page-load speed and reduced power consumption for Chrome users.