Good:
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.
Flash, as I’ve said on numerous occasions, borders on malware. Steve Jobs was derided as shortsighted and as a crank* for refusing to allow Flash on iOS devices, but the fact remains even eight years later that Flash is buggy, unsecure, and a CPU and battery hog.
Good on Amazon for refusing to allow Flash ads any longer.
*OK, so he was a crank — but not on this point.
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