The streaming site YouTube will now base its default player on the HTML5 standard instead of Flash from Adobe. Thus, according to reports published on YouTube's official blog at the end of last January (2015). The announcement states that YouTube will now use the Flash player only on systems or browsers that do not support the HTML5 Video tag. That is, if you surf the Internet with Explorer 11, Chrome, beta versions of Firefox or Safari 8, it will be the HTML5 player that will be activated by default.
The move in question is not done in a vacuum. Already about four years ago, YouTube announced that it supports the HTML5 Video tag, but certain restrictions and especially the lack of support for a variable bit rate, ABR (Adaptive Bitrate), prevented the company from abandoning Flash as a preferred option. Indeed, the author of the post on the official blog, Richard Leider, stated that the ABR technology was one of the main considerations behind the switch.
"ABR technology is fundamental in terms of the viewing experience for the surfer,", Leider noted in his article, "This is a technology that allows us to easily and efficiently adjust resolution and bit rate in response to changes in network traffic. Also, ABR resulted in a reduction of the charging time to the buffer by about 50% in general, and up to about 80% in networks with high working voltage.
As part of the publication, it was also stated that HTML5 is not a standard used only by the traditional Internet world, but is common on other platforms, including media streams and smart televisions. That is, the transition to an HTML5 player will improve YouTube's ability to deliver a high-quality live viewing experience through other end devices. This is thanks to the use of the VP9 standard, which opens the door for displaying videos and high-resolution video content with the use of a bandwidth that is reduced by about 35%.
End of an era?
For years, Adobe Flash was a key player in the world of streaming and viewing online video content, but with success naturally came criticism. Among the famous opponents of Flash, we can of course mention Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, who already in 2011 (when the iPhone was the undisputed king of the class) announced that Flash would not run on his browser. "It's time for HTML5", said Jobs and opened the door to collapse. Four years later, it seems that the revolution is about to end (empires, as Dan Thorn taught us, fall slowly).
Flash technology is less and less relevant and Youtube's move towards HTML5 is undoubtedly much more than a slight pat on the wing. "Goodbye Flash, this is the last nail in your coffin,", wrote one commenter to Leider's article on the official blog, "Well done! Less flash in the world and more open source, that's great!", another added.
world of open source
It is certainly possible to analyze the battle between HTML5 and Flash point by point, and slowly but thoughtfully explain the full differences between the two technologies. However, if we examine the issue in a broader perspective, we can notice that it is a struggle between two paradigms that replace each other. If you will, the older horse that gives way to the young and ambitious foal.
We are of course talking about the fundamental difference between open source and closed source. While HTML5 is an open source standard that thousands of programmers and developers from all over the world are working to advance and improve, the technology behind Flash is privately owned by Adobe. Indeed, the revolution is already here. The transition to the world of open source is gaining more and more momentum, and the ability of closed source systems to deal with the speeding information train is becoming somewhat impossible.