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Google is banning Flash from its display ads

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Re: Google is banning Flash from its display ads

#81
post #54

I haven't had the Flash plugin since 2012 and only a few couple of times I've encountered something I wanted to use which required Flash since when I stopped having Flash. In every case where Flash was required I simply Googled the relevant keywords and found what I was looking for provided by other non-Flash sites.

Twitch is the only thing keeping Flash on my system, and as soon as they make the switch to HTML5 video I'll be uninstalling it completely.

Add &html5 to the Twitch URL to force it to give you HTML5 instead of Flash.

Re: Google is banning Flash from its display ads

#82
post #8

One thing HTML5 lacks is the ability to combine all assets into one file. This makes Flash particularly handy for advertisements. Safari almost got there with its .Webarchive format, and Mozilla experimented with a file format but it didn't get anywhere.

Bundles might make sense, but one large blob that couldn't be parsed until it was finished loading would probably be a big step backward for responsiveness. Parallel downloads also help speed things up. Another interesting idea for JS-heavy sites is server-side pre rendering (yes, having the server generate HTML like the good old bad days) like Ember FastBoot http://tomdale.net/2015/02/youre-missing-the-point-of-serv…

Flash programs could start running before the whole things was downloaded. Hence custom loading bars on flash movies on Newgrounds.

Re: Google is banning Flash from its display ads

#83
post #3

I've blocked Google ads for so long I didn't realize they had been allowing Flash ads.

Which ad blocker do you use on mobile?

We just (last week) launched an Android ad blocker with Samsung that doesn’t require rooting your device or switching to another browser (our app works with Samsung Internet, which is the default browser on most of their devices): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rocketship...

The ad blocker is also open source: https://github.com/rocketshipapps/adblockfast

Re: Google is banning Flash from its display ads

#84
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which ad blocker do you use on mobile?

We just (last week) launched an Android ad blocker with Samsung that doesn’t require rooting your device or switching to another browser (our app works with Samsung Internet, which is the default browser on most of their devices): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rocketship... The ad blocker is also open source: https://github.com/rocketshipapps/adblockfast

>Samsung Internet

Ah yes, I'm remembering why I hate non-Nexus Android phones...

Re: Google is banning Flash from its display ads

#85

Google does ads? Honestly, it has been a very long while since I've seen ads. Adblock aside, my phone is so old that any significant ads effectively causes a crash, total non-responsive phone. So I still don't see them.

How do you think Google makes money if not ads?

Re: Google is banning Flash from its display ads

#86
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just add a bookmark to kill iframes, then you just click the button to instantly remove any iframe adverts (which includes all of google's ads).

Why? This still allows the ad tracking and other malicious Javascript, and it still requires you to recognize that there are ads on the page. The cost in mental effort is significant; if you think it isn't, live completely ad free for a month or two to reset your tolerance.

Ad tracking uses cookies, not javascript, and isn't "malicious" as such. If you're worried about that, just disable cookies and/or javascript.

Re: Google is banning Flash from its display ads

#87
post #84
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We just (last week) launched an Android ad blocker with Samsung that doesn’t require rooting your device or switching to another browser (our app works with Samsung Internet, which is the default browser on most of their devices): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rocketship... The ad blocker is also open source: https://github.com/rocketshipapps/adblockfast

>Samsung Internet Ah yes, I'm remembering why I hate non-Nexus Android phones...

Samsung Internet is, surprisingly, faster and smoother than Chrome. They have really optimized it.

Re: Google is banning Flash from its display ads

#89
post #7

Silly question: Do people not use Click-to-play? I thought it was enabled in browsers by default now, or at least Firefox.

I do (even as a sometime Flash developer), but unfortunately it's not always practical. There are plenty of sites, including Vimeo embeds and Vine, which cover the SWF with an HTML element - making it impossible to right-click to play the SWF. So you end up disabling click-to-play just to see the video you wanted.

Does anyone know why Vimeo does that? I refuse to disable Flashblock to use Vimeo, and I don't understand how requiring me to do so would benefit them.

Re: Google is banning Flash from its display ads

#90
post #85

Google does ads? Honestly, it has been a very long while since I've seen ads. Adblock aside, my phone is so old that any significant ads effectively causes a crash, total non-responsive phone. So I still don't see them.

How do you think Google makes money if not ads?

How do you not get sarcasm?
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