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YouTube ditches Flash for HTML5 as default player

PostPosted:February 4th, 2015, 2:57 am
by ThemeSplat
Four years ago, when YouTube implemented early support for HTML5, it wrote, "There's been a lot of discussion lately about whether or not the HTML5 <video> tag is going to replace Flash Player for video distribution on the web." Now that discussion has seemingly come to an end, as YouTube has announced that it will now default to HTML5 instead of Flash in Chrome, Internet Explorer 11, Safari 8, and beta versions of Firefox.

YouTube said that a number of "key technologies" have enabled the switch to the new default format, including MediaSource Extensions that allow Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) streaming, which lets it adjust resolution and bitrate of video streams on the fly "in the face of changing network conditions," the open VP9 codec that enables higher resolution at lower bandwidths, Encrypted Media Extensions, new fullscreen APIs, and more.

Despite having long dominated web video and other interactive content, Flash has been under fire for years over performance and security issues. Back in 2010, Steve Jobs famously wrote an open letter, his "Thoughts on Flash," to address the ongoing controversy over Apple's refusal to support Flash on its iOS devices. After summing up a series of shortcoming of Flash, Jobs end his letter by suggesting "Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind."

Thoughts on Flash by Steve Jobs