In April, Microsoft announced that its Edge browser will join Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome in automatically pausing Adobe Flash content found on web pages.
The feature affects Flash content that is not central to the web page, including animations and advertisements.
Google, however, looks like it will be taking a step further in weeding out Flash from its browser, with the company revealing plans to begin blocking most Flash-based content in Chrome by the end of 2016.
Once the plan has been implemented, almost all websites will have their Flash content automatically blocked. Users who would like to see the Flash content can still do so, but they will have to specifically choose to access the content, and will have to do so for every website being visited that contains Flash components.
When a user visits a website that has had its Flash content blocked, a popup will appear to ask if the user wants Flash enabled for the website. If the content is allowed, Chrome will remember and will run Flash on the website for succeeding visits.
The plan was detailed by Google developers in a Google Groups thread. Instead of Flash, the primary experience will be HTML5, which was described to provide users with lower power consumption and faster load times. The target date of the launch of the plan is by the fourth quarter of the year.
The proposal will not be affecting each and every website with Flash-based content, though, as the top 10 websites will be under a whitelist that will allow them to show Flash content without prompting the popup for users to choose if they want to see the Flash components. The 10 websites mentioned as part of the whitelist are YouTube, Facebook, VK, Live, Yandex, OK.ru, Twitch, Amazon, Yahoo and Mail.ru.
While Flash will still be in Chrome, disabling the plugin by default will prevent users from being subjected to unwanted and potentially malicious content. Disabling Flash will also urge Web developers to switch to HTML5, as doing so will provide a more seamless experience for users on Chrome.
A total of 316 bugs were discovered and fixed in 2015, with 113 of the flaws found in the fourth quarter of 2015. The vulnerability of the software is one of the major reasons why companies and developers have been making the push to HTML5.
