The web up to this point has had a nice balance between accessibility and innovation. Technologies like Flash are important catalysts of a better web. Current trends in standards-driven web design have been highly inspired from the Flash landscape. Flash raised the bar and standards-centric technologies rose to meet it. Flash was a necessary evil to achieve the things we wanted on the web. Now, many would say it simply is not necessary anymore – with myself leaning heavily in that corner. This is something I have been alluding to for years. In the past, Flash offered solutions for needs that HTML could not meet which is why I historically supported Flash. That day is proving to quickly be over.

Flash has always had a contentious place on the web. However, it pushed the internet kicking and screaming into a richer realization. Much of what we see in the HTML5/CSS3 specs look like they were pulled directly from the Flash playbook – and we are all happy for it. However, for one reason or another, Flash has not been able to leap-frog HTML as it had in the past. This could likely be that our needs have now been met. In a more optimistic take on it, Flash has accomplished its mission of “bring[ing] the Internet to life”. Its job is done.

What made Flash the go-to technology in the past is that it accomplished things that HTML just could not do. Flash existed out of needs from designers and wants from (some) users. A few examples include:

Video

HTML5 video is looking very promising, with YouTube and Vimeo already having HTML5 video players.

Vector graphics

Canvas seems to be able to do much of what one can do in Flash with vectors.

Typography

CSS3′s @font-face now allows custom font embedding.

High motion

New Javascript engines are frighteningly fast and can hold their own on the equivalent of typical motion in Flash.

Rich graphics (opacity, gradients, etc.)

Support for transparent PNGs and new CSS3 rules have come a long way to narrow the gap.

Asynchronous data transfer

AJAX anyone?

From my view, these were the core distinguishable features that made Flash the hard pill that was necessary to swallow. Many developers embraced Flash despite being closed because it offered unique solutions. Users installed Flash (many against their desires) so that they could consume content that most often could not pragmatically be viewed in any other way. Yes, there will be some growing pains with HTML5, but it can be done and, in theory, with less effort. Any technology that loses the qualities that make it needed is not long for this world.

Now, enter the iPad. It is shiny, affordable and at the very least looks fun to use. Here’s the difference, the iPad already is not a necessary evil. Other devices achieve the same functionality, just in a different, if less polished sort of way. We do not need the iPad, therefore I think it would be unwise to let it determine how we use the web or consume media. With Flash, we had to make the compromise to install a proprietary browser plugin to view rich media on the web in a way that we otherwise could not. With the iPad we will have to make the compromise to buy a device with a closed application platform where Apple chooses what we can install, a closed 3G market with only one carrier, media formats which may or may not be protected with DRM and the ability to browse the internet with only Apple’s browser. All this to do things that we already do, just in a debatably more enjoyable way. Simply put Flash served an inarguably vital service to the progression of the web. The iPad does not.

All that said, I am excited about what the iPad could do for media consumption. What concerns me is the trend that Apple takes more and more control from users with each new device. We need to let users and web publishers decide if Flash is an unnecessary technology. There are still certain areas in the browser where Flash is optimal, such as games and complex data visualizations. Additionally, no one seems to be considering the scenario where Adobe steps up Flash’s game and comes up with the next big idea that we simply cannot live without. Does it still make sense to block Flash entirely? It has long been considered that Apple’s decision to not support Flash lies in part with the fact that Flash offers direct competition to many apps produced for the iPhone/iPod/iPad. If Apple truly is concerned about the web user experience, why are we not talking about an ad blocker? An ad blocker would filter out the vast majority of negative instances of Flash (banner ads) while preserving the (potentially) positive instances. Blocking Flash seems just too close to how they blocked Google Voice.

Barring some mind-blowing innovation by Adobe, Flash is on its way out as a mainstream web technology regardless of the success or failure of the iPad. What irks me is that I don’t want Apple deciding what I can or cannot install on my machine. Standards-supporters are cheering short-term victories for long-term defeats. This new Apple has a history of blocking technologies on their mobile devices once they deem it a competitor or a threat. Who’s to say they will be fine with standards if it ever ends up conflicting with their business interests? I could easily see a scenario where Apple’s mobile Safari only supports the H.264 codec for HTML5 video – putting us essentially in the same place where we are now for video. Yes, we need a standard, non-proprietary platform to start from. However, it is also highly beneficial for outsiders to push new concepts and technologies that do not have to wait for slow moving organizations agreeing upon final specifications. We need both these forces in balance with each other. What we do not need is a company artificially impacting that balance.

Adobe is not the good guy. Ultimately, they are not concerned about an open platform, they are simply irked that Flash was not accepted and are crying for an ‘open’ web to protect their interests. If they were truly concerned about an open web, they would have open sourced Flash Player years ago (yes, I know the SWF file format is open, but that’s far from the same – see the notoriously spotty Linux support) and/or accepted the fact that the web is just moving on. Additionally, Apple is not the good guy either. They are not concerned about an open platform, they are simply blocking out a technology that could potentially chip away at sales from their AppStore. If they were truly concerned about standards, I would like to remind them that standards go hand-in-hand with openness – something Apple has been devoid of with their mobile devices.

Make no mistake, this little spat between Apple and Adobe is a power struggle about how we consume media. Both are fighting tooth and nail to give users the best media consumption experience available, as long as it’s theirs. In conclusion, what is most sad to me is to watch the different development communities duking it out over what is almost certainly two companies vying for a larger stake in how we consume media. It surely doesn’t seem like either community wins in the end. As my colleague Justin Windle mentioned to me lately, we should concentrate on building great work rather than try to intervene on this corporate cat-fight.

Design technology by David Lu. via Surfstation

1. The General Resentment It Brings From Its Use

I know this is a little meta, but this is easily my largest gripe. The problem with this issue is that it has less to do with the technology and more to do with the divisive history it has had with internet users – meaning there is no new feature which Adobe can release to alleviate it. We all have had plenty of tremendously wretched Flash experiences in our time on the internet. This obviously has left a bad taste in the mouth of many people. Due to this history, I find myself conflicted when suggesting Flash as a solution that could otherwise be done (perhaps with less polish) in Javascript. When working on many Flash projects, this concern is running around in the back of my head.

I would argue that most resent Flash when it is used incorrectly. The problem is, a great number of Flash projects out there represent just that.

2. Overall Separation From Browser

I could go into specifics, but the concern is greater than just one singular issue. Of course, there is the infamous context menu and loss of back/forward functionality, but those are just examples of a larger problem. As browsers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and more communicative with semantic code, Flash becomes more disconnected from a very connected environment. Even “standard” browser features we take for granted such as searching for text on a page or spell-checking are by no means standard in Flash applications. We are going to see that chasm increase with features such as browser-based Microformat detection/extraction.

Simply put, browsers continue to advance and normal HTML/CSS sites are able to piggy-back on those advancements. Flash unfortunately cannot – yet. My sincere hope is that it will in the very near future.

3. No Semantic Value to Content

Whether Flash can better integrate with browsers or not, there does lie the underlying problem that Flash conveys no informational context to content. This would not be tremendously concerning if the web was not, at its core, informational. While it still has a long way to go, HTML offers a semblance of context to the content laid out in it. H1 tags let the browser and search engines know that its contents have greater informational hierarchy than contents in H2 tags. Simple as this may be, our Google searches depend greatly on this notion. This simply does not exist in Flash.

4. The Expectations That Come Along With It

This is not a fault of Adobe, but there seems to be a general philosophy in the business that because there is extra slack offered by using Flash, that means we should hang ourselves with it. It is that general “because we can” philosophy which has helped fuel the resentment from many in the online community. We need to shift our thinking from “because we can” to “because we should”. That alone would be a significant step in the right direction for Flash. Ironically, I think it would be the most difficult to achieve.

5. No Support for Open Source Video Formats

Adobe has made great progress along these lines, but I would like to see them go further. I applaud their move to support the H.264 video format – now I would like them to move towards supporting codecs such as OGG and Theora. Adobe has put a lot of effort to make the Flash technology as a whole increasingly open and non-proprietary, this would be another very good step in my opinion.

6. No Native 3D

But it’s coming. I may rescind this annoyance when I behold the inevitable gratuitous abuses people commit with it.

7. Flex’s File Size Overhead

But they are working on that as well. Until then, it is pretty hard to justify the ~220kB overhead for most of the things I work on.

While many may argue otherwise, I believe a lot of the innovation on the web in general could be traced back to Flash – which I will write about in a future article. That said, a lot of the forces holding the web back have some relation to Flash as well. That is why there is so much contention around the technology – the upsides and downsides are equally high and both camps tend to dwell on which ever side makes their case. Flash is not going away anytime soon, but why should its stay cause so much frustration? If we can even begin to make stronger progress in these areas, I think a lot of the concern will diminish.