Amazon may have been Apple’s target when it unveiled its iBooks Store alongside the iPad in 2010, but the digital retail giant’s latest move is helping fulfill Steve Jobs’ vision of a web without Flash. Amazon Advertising issued an update to its technical guidelines today declaring that it will stop accepting Flash-based ads starting next month. Adobe cited “recent browser setting updates from Google Chrome, and existing browser settings from Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari” that interfere with displaying Flash ads.
Lack of support for the Adobe Flash plug-in on iOS garnered much attention around the launch of the iPad five years ago as the full-sized tablet browser was criticized for presenting holes on the web where Flash content otherwise would be. Apple CEO Steve Jobs minimized the value of the missing content by noting that the ‘holes’ were mostly ads at the time. Now, Amazon is making sure that doesn’t happen to their ad platform.
And while the iPhone, iPad, and Jobs’ famed Thoughts on Flash essay have lead the move from Flash to other resource and security-friendly solutions like HTML 5, Amazon pointed to desktop browser changes as its reason for no longer accepting Flash ads.
Mozilla last month totally disabled Flash support in Firefox, requiring users manually enable it after a widespread security scare plagued the plug-in, and likewiseApple has aggressively required Safari users to use the latest version of the frequently updated plug-in over security concerns. Google’s Chrome browser bakes Flash support in out of the box, but like Safari, it’s employed energy-saving techniques to keep the power hungry plug-in from being a resource and battery drain by pausing Flash in the background in some cases. Facebook’s CSO recently called on Adobe to announce an end-of-life date for the plug-in.
Amazon outlines its updated technical guidelines including the end of Flash ad support on its advertising channels here.
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Jobs was a true visionary. His crystal ball was uncannily accurate. I vividly remember all the “real Internet” nonsense when iOS didn’t support Flash. Then came Jobs’ manifesto and it was ridiculed by the faux technorati. Well here we are today and Steve Jobs’s “Thoughts on Flash” treatise has proven to be prophetic.
http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
Jobs..!!! Yes.!!! He was The Visionary of All wasn’t he??? Sharp Character he was…
Adobe cited or Amazon cited?
The time has come for Google to catch up with the rest of the world and strip this crapware out of their browser.
I don’t think Google will ever be able to catch up with the rest of the world. They live in their own, for better or worse.
Doesn’t Amazon still require Flash to preview audio tracks?
Yes your are correct!!