It seems like all of Silicon Valley, including Adobe itself, has banded together to finally kill off Flash, but the process has to be gradual. A significant chunk of the Internet still relies on the platform, and you can’t exactly force online services and websites to abandon it. Instead, companies like Google and Mozilla have been removing support for Flash and Flash-based services from their products in an effort to starve out stragglers and convince them to switch to HTML5. That’s why Google has decided to stop accepting new Flash-based advertisements on June 30th, and will stop supporting existing ads entirely next January.
There are so many reasons to use HTML5 over Flash it’s not even funny. From serious security concerns, to dwindling compatibility and support, there’s never been a better time to make the move to the latest and greatest HTML standard. That’s why AdWords took to Google+ today to announce that Flash would be banished from its advertisements forever in favor of the long foretold HTML5. The move affects both the Google Display Network and DoubleClick Digital Marketing, and it’s kicking in sooner than you might think. On June 30, customers will no longer be able to upload Flash-based ads to AdWords and DoubleClick. It will take a bit longer for currently uploaded Flash ads to stop showing up. On January 2, 2017, any remaining ads using Flash will no longer run on AdWords or DoubleClick. These changes don’t include video ads built in Flash, which for the time remaining will continue to be uploaded and display as usual. Fortunately, Google has also provided a detailed support page with step-by-step instructions for bringing ad campaigns into compliance with the new rules. It lists steps for converting Flash ads, as well as creating new ads that embrace HTML5 fully.