This means auto-playing ads and videos (on non-video websites) will be automatically on pause by default until a user decides to play them, reports Ars Technica, noting that Chrome had a Flash-blocking feature that rolled out in beta earlier this year.
Back then, Google said the reason for blocking Flash was battery life, as auto-playing ads eat up a lot of CPU time. It’ll also help cut down on malware that’s spread through malicious Flash ads, something Flash has become notorious for.
In August, Yahoo had to remove malware from its advertising network that used Flash , and Facebook and Firefox also want to just put Flash out of its misery already after other security holes were identified in July.
Your ears will get a rest, but advertisers are sure to be ticked off by the move. While YouTube has been using HTML5 by default since the beginning of this year, most online advertisers still use Flash, even on mobile (though iOS has never supported it and Android killed support for it off in 2011).
Google automatically converts most Flash ads on its AdWords network to HTML5, notes Ars, but other sites will just stop accepting Flash ads altogether. Amazon already made the move to ban Flash ads as of Sept. 1, saying that the change “ensures customers continue to have a positive, consistent experience across Amazon and its affiliates, and that ads displayed across the site function properly for optimal performance.”
Google Chrome will block auto-playing Flash ads from September 1 [Ars Technica]
by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist
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