Google joins the race of sidetracking Flash content together with Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. Flash has been disabled by default in the Google Chrome web browser with version 76. The search engine giant announced that its algorithms will omit all Flash content, with files encompassing the SWF extension.
Google stated, “the majority of users and websites won’t be affected by the change.” Apple decided to turn down Flash during the introduction of the iPhone on those devices. In fact, very few browsers support Flash.
Substitutes. Flash decelerates the site speed, thereby impacting the user experience. It’s recommended that you should consider HTML5 and other new types of JavaScript. But Google takes a step back from working with Flash for indexing.
The past few years have witnessed a significant increase in mobile users. For the majority of the mobile browsers, Adobe Flash lacks licensing. Hence, websites are suggested to eliminate Flash from their web pages.
Penalty for websites with Flash Content
It’s still vague whether Google will penalize websites for including Flash-based content. But, it’s sure that Google won’t consider the content and index other facets of the website. In short, websites may not be a victim if they keep Flash-based content. Yet, websites that demand to index must switch to the modern HTML5 standard. This will make certain optimum and all-inclusive indexing from Google Search Algorithms.
Why should we care?
Whether your website is designed in Flash fully or partly, and you’re relying on Google search traffic, then you must update your website and avoid using Flash in the future.
Conclusion: Many argued that Adobe terminating Flash support marks the end of the Flash era. Google addressed the issue by stating that the plugin “was the answer to the insipid static web, with affluent animations, media, and actions.” Google further added that it was “a productive technology that influenced new content creators on the web.” But now Flash has to vanish.
