Adobe Flash's death march continues. Google announced Tuesday that beginning June 30, display ads built in Flash can no longer be uploaded to AdWords or DoubleClick Digital Marketing — it's two biggest ad products.
In a Google+ post announcing the news, Google added that it will stop running Flash ads on Jan. 2, 2017.
The one minor caveat is that video ads using Flash will still continue to work and be served.
This is just the latest sign that Flash on the web is truly coming to an end. And that's a good thing, because despite the major role Flash played in the development of the modern web, it's time for the technology to go away.
Not only is Flash a frequent vulnerability target, it's non-existent presence on mobile has made it legacy technology with no real future.
Even Adobe renamed its Flash creation suite Adobe Animate CC last Fall.
Still, Flash has persisted on the web, in large part because plenty of advertisers still use it to serve displays ads. Google is in a unique position as both the market leader in both desktop web browsers and as an ad platform to help kill Flash altogether.
For its part, Google has offered HTML5 ad tools for years. And last year, it made HTML5 the default video player for YouTube.
Forcing advertisers to move to HTML5 for ads is what we hope will be one of the final steps in helping rid all of our web browsers of Flash.
Source: Mashable
