After multiple malvertising campaigns on major ad networks, including Yahoo and AdSpirit.de, as well as the disclosure of major vulnerabilities, companies have begun banning Adobe Flash ads on their websites.
Just this past week, both Amazon and Google moved to double down on Flash ads and the possible risk they pose to users. For its part, Google said in a blog post that it would officially begin pausing Flash ads by default around Sept. 1 on its Chrome browser.
The company said most Flash ads are automatically converted to HTML5.
Amazon plans to phase out Flash ads entirely at the start of next month. In an alert on its advertising guidelines page, the company wrote that its decision stems from Google pausing ads, as well as existing browser setting for Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari.
“This change ensures customers continue to have a positive, consistent experience on Amazon, and that ads displayed across the site function properly for optimal performance,” the alert said.
Flash's apparent demise wasn't a surprise, at least for many. Steve Jobs wrote in a 2010 blog post that he thought Flash belonged to the older “PC era.”
“New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too),” he said. “Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.”
