Why not make Flash free versions open to everyone?
NPR and The Wall Street are known to be remaking, at least in part, their sites in order to service Apple’s Flash free iPad. And, to my mind that’s a good thingâ„¢. However, why not let anyone with an aversion to Adobe’s buggy and resource hungry multimedia plugin connect to these Flash-free havens?
AllThingsD is reporting that NPR and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), among unnamed others, are preparing to serve folks viewing their Web sites using Apple’s soon-to-ship iPad, which will arrived blessedly Flash free (hence the Web site rewrites). However, these aren’t going to be deep site rewrites, but we’ll take what we can get.
As you’d expect, Flash is being replaced by HTML5 and JavaScript. The catch for publishers is that these technologies aren’t yet fully plugged into the systems used by online advertisers.
But I digress.
[Flash] free for all
Once the iPad’s out — it starts shipping on April 3 — there will certainly be people who find a way to emulate the iPad in whatever browser on their Macs (or whatever) so they can enjoy Flash free versions of NPR and WSJ. And, once they figure it out, I’ll be all over that.
That said, why not detect people with browsers that either don’t have Flash installed at all or choose to selectively block Flash and let them enjoy the Flash free goodness rather than present them with that hideous stain, the Lego block? Why not make their Flash free Web sites — an advanced security and stability feature if there ever was one — available to everyone, not just iPad users.
Seriously, the internet is a beautiful and wondrous thing, and its a more secure and less crash prone thing when Flash isn’t part of the equation. Come on, NPR and WSJ, share the love with everyone.
Besides, it’s in your self interest — there’s no chance we’ll be clicking Flash-based ads if we haven’t installed Flash or choose to block it.
What’s your take?
Related Posts:
March 17th, 2010
Why are people so ignorant as to think that Flash can run on the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad? All three are multitouch devices which have no mouse hover which Flash needs to work.
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/02/01/ten-myth-of-apple’s-ipad-2-ipad-needs-adobe-flash/
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/02/20/an-adobe-flash-developer-on-why-the-ipad-cant-use-flash/#more-4191
Flash is old, buggy proprietary software. Who needs it? If the websites want clicks then they will get out using Flash. There is no way to fix Flash.