Chrome to Block Flash Ads from 1st September

Google has confirmed that from 1st September onwards, its Chrome internet browser will “begin pausing many Flash ads by default”. Though the announcement, made through the AdWord Google+ page, claims that the measure is being taken “to improve performance for users”, but it coincides with a raft of security concerns and zero-day vulnerabilities regularly reported within Adobe Flash.

The most recent Flash exploit, discovered in July, allowed hackers remote access to computers to execute malicious code. Soon after, Flash was blocked by Mozilla’s Firefox browser and by the beta version of Chrome. Google’s Tommi Li announced that the move was initiated to save laptop battery life, which seems farfetched.

YouTube has already transitioned from Flash to HTML5 to display its videos, with game streaming site Twitch following suit, while Amazon is also banning Flash ads on its domains from the start of next month. Apple has never allowed Flash on its mobile devices, citing its security holes as a rick to users, while Android removed Flash support three years ago for similar reasons.

Though the more advanced and secure HTML5 is slowly taking over – Google has even converted a number of its AdWords Flash ads into HTML5 – Flash ads still dominate the market. A report from Sizmek shows that advertisers delivered over 5.35 billion Flash ads during the first quarter of 2015, versus 4.25 billion HTML5 ads.

Thank you Ars Technica for providing us with this information.