Google has confirmed that its browser, Google Chrome, will block all the Flash-based ads by default, starting today. Hence, whenever a user will visit a website containing Flash advertisements, they will be paused by Google, and can only be activated manually
Google’s reason behind the move is that Flash-based content increases page load time, and consumes more device battery power, which eventually deteriorates user experience. Additionally, only the Flash content that is not “central to the web page” will be blocked. Hence, Flash games and videos are expected to work. Google had rolled out the feature initially with Chrome's Beta version, earlier this year.
According to a recent report from management firm Sizmek, cited by Ars Technica, advertisers tried to sell more than 5.35 billion Flash ads in Q1 2015, as compared to 4.25 billion HTML5 ads. Google's decision to block Flash ads is a concerning factor for advertisers, with Chrome being one of the most-used browsers. Although users will still have the ability to enable and run Flash ads from its settings, such an action will be a rarity among increasing usage of ad blockers.
Earlier this year, Google started to convert most Flash-based ads to HTML5 automatically, so Google advertisers have nothing to worry about. For others, shifting to HTML5 seems to be the only option for now. Additionally, Google also abandoned Flash for HTML5 on YouTube earlier. However, Google is not the only company going against Flash-based ads and contents. Firefox has previously blocked Flash content completely, and Apple has done it for older versions of Adobe Flash Player from time to time.