Google has taken what may be the final shot at the bow of Adobe Flash by issuing “Flash” warnings in Google mobile search.
Remember when most restaurant, bar, and brand websites were built in Adobe Flash? Thankfully, the decidedly more mobile-friendly HTML5 has taken over as the design language of choice. There are Flash websites still around, though, but maybe not for much longer. As of today, Google is warning Google mobile search users about the poor mobile experience of Flash websites via a pre-load warning. This includes not only iOS devices (where Flash doesn’t work at all), but also Android and Microsoft devices that technically can load Flash.
If your website is still coded in Flash, this should be the final wake-up call to move swiftly to a different (read more mobile friendly) website technology. It’s a certainty that this pop-up warning will scare off visitors. And even if a visitor clicks “Try Anyway”, the experience will not be what people have come to expect of responsive mobile-friendly websites. Then there’s the SEO ramifications of Flash – with its embedded text, it’s simply not a friend of search engine marketing.
It’s safe to say that with over half of all internet traffic coming from mobile devices these days, Flash has officially worn out its welcome.
Matt Bray, Client Strategist]]>