Google Search Results Now Notifying iPhone Users When Websites Use Flash

MacRumors · Jul 15, 2014

Google recently implemented a feature that warns iPhone users when search results include websites that use Adobe Flash, as Flash is not supported by the iPhone.

When searching for a site, pages that primarily use Flash are clearly marked by Google with a warning that the site may not work on a particular device.

A common annoyance for web users is when websites require browser technologies that are not supported by their device. When users access such pages, they may see nothing but a blank space or miss out a large portion of the page's contents.

Starting today, we will indicate to searchers when our algorithms detect pages that may not work on their devices.

Google goes on to recommend that websites use the universally supported HTML5 and provides both Web Fundamentals and a Web Starter Kit for website developers.

Apple received a good bit of criticism when the iPhone was first released for not supporting Flash as it was used often back then, but interest in Flash has since been dying out in favor of mobile-friendly solutions.

Article Link: Google Search Results Now Notifying iPhone Users When Websites Use Flash

citi · Jul 15, 2014

I would expect that this would apply to GOOGLE phones too considering they don't natively support flash either.

afferennen · Jul 15, 2014

Just iPhone Users?

Hey Juli, Some Android devices don't support Flash either. It's not just iPhone users.

troop231 · Jul 15, 2014

If YouTube just completely dropped Flash, I'm sure Flash would go away faster..

nagromme · Jul 15, 2014

Useful idea, but I hope it doesn't flag the (many!) sites with non-vital Flash. False positives would by crying wolf. I myself make sites with Flash-based product demos--demand is there from my clients, and they do load super fast while being cheap to build and edit. Mobile users are fine--I serve them a video instead, or sometimes an interactive JavaScript demo. So flagging those demos as "Flash sites" would be a failure of the algorithm.

(And I assume Google is notifying ALL phone and tablet users, not just iPhone, since Adobe gave up trying to make Flash work well on mobile?)

jclo · Jul 15, 2014

afferennen said:
Hey Juli, Some Android devices don't support Flash either. It's not just iPhone users.

Also applies to Android devices that don't support Flash.

JoEw · Jul 15, 2014

troop231 said:
If YouTube just completely dropped Flash, I'm sure Flash would go away faster..

That won't happen until IE shrinks more in marketshare and google figures out how to show ads with its html5 player.

It will eventually happen, but not for awhile.

Apple has no doubt assured the end of flash, which frees up more resources for adobe to work on other software.

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afferennen said:
Hey Juli, Some Android devices don't support Flash either. It's not just iPhone users.

I thought Adobe dropped support for their mobile flash in 2011?

Mattsasa · Jul 15, 2014

yea, I though all android devices don't support flash

BaldiMac · Jul 15, 2014

I can see this "feature" as being ripe for some passive aggressive abuse by Google, not to mention the potential for false positives.

gotluck · Jul 15, 2014

flash still works on kit kat, but not out of the box

coolfactor · Jul 15, 2014

troop231 said:
If YouTube just completely dropped Flash, I'm sure Flash would go away faster..

YouTube delivers MPEG-4 video to supporting browsers/devices. It's not users choosing Flash at YouTube, it's YouTube having a business built up around ad placements. But I see your point... as long as something as huge as YouTube gives the thumbs-up to a particular technology, the world will thinks they need it, too. (Think "Microsoft Office").

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This is Google trying to differentiate themselves from competing engines even more, by appearing "mobile-friendly".

OriginalMacRat · Jul 15, 2014

troop231 said:
If YouTube just completely dropped Flash, I'm sure Flash would go away faster..

And Hulu.
And Vimeo.
etc.

Zxxv · Jul 15, 2014

A common annoyance for web users is when websites require browser technologies that are not supported by their device. When users access such pages, they may see nothing but a blank space or miss out a large portion of the page's contents.

Nope doesn't bother me at all I just move on. I'd say it should bother the owners of the website more that I can't be arsed to work around to view their stuff. Their loss as theres plenty of other people out there to visit.

BaldiMac · Jul 15, 2014

Zxxv said:
Nope doesn't bother me at all I just move on. I'd say it should bother the owners of the website more that I can't be arsed to work around to view their stuff. Their loss as theres plenty of other people out there to visit.

And now, with Google's new "feature," these websites will lose access to the analytics that might convince them to abandon incompatible technologies since people with incompatible devices won't be accessing their page as often. Thanks, Google!

Maybe Google will be able to sell them the info that they are losing.

GeneralChang · Jul 15, 2014

BaldiMac said:
And now, with Google's new "feature," these websites will lose access to the analytics that might convince them to abandon incompatible technologies since people with incompatible devices won't be accessing their page as often. Thanks, Google!

Maybe Google will be able to sell them the info that they are losing.

Oh Im sure Google will figure out how to turn this innocuous little feature into money. Its like a superpower with them.

rdlink · Jul 15, 2014

This is not a feature to me. Just a complication. Google is just begging me to use Bing.

Carlanga · Jul 15, 2014

Ms. Clover, your title is not proper for the message google is convening

Android and iOS devices of today cannot do flash natively.

Proper title should be: Google Search Results Now Notifying Mobile Users When Websites Use Flash

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rdlink said:
This is not a feature to me. Just a complication. Google is just begging me to use Bing.

lol, but then again you own a phone and a tablet

gotluck · Jul 15, 2014

Carlanga said:
Android and iOS devices of today cannot do flash natively.

kit kat can do flash natively with dolphin browser (firefox too i think?) and a tweaked flash .apk

guess it depends on your definition of natively (it is indeed locally processed) and works quite well

C DM · Jul 15, 2014

gotluck said:
kit kat can do flash natively with dolphin browser (firefox too i think?) and a tweaked flash .apk
guess it depends on your definition of natively (it is indeed locally processed) and works quite well

Natively seems to be more in the sense of Flash being officially supported by Android on its own without anything else needed to be installed or at least with an official installation from Google and/or Adobe. None of which really applies these days.

gotluck · Jul 15, 2014

C DM said:
Natively seems to be more in the sense of Flash being officially supported by Android on its own without anything else needed to be installed or at least with an official installation from Google and/or Adobe. None of which really applies these days.

I suppose, though I would use the term stock, or out of the box

seriously it functions great

jovada · Jul 15, 2014

troop231 said:
If YouTube just completely dropped Flash, I'm sure Flash would go away faster..

And Facebook.

Michael Goff · Jul 15, 2014

troop231 said:
If YouTube just completely dropped Flash, I'm sure Flash would go away faster..

And a lot of other sites...

JoEw said:
That won't happen until IE shrinks more in marketshare and google figures out how to show ads with its html5 player.

It will eventually happen, but not for awhile.

Apple has no doubt assured the end of flash, which frees up more resources for adobe to work on other software.

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I thought Adobe dropped support for their mobile flash in 2011?

Modern versions of IE (9 or above) play HTML5 video on YouTube just fine, thank you very much.

2457282 · Jul 15, 2014

i took flash (and all things Adobe) off my Mac. And of course never had it on my iOS devices. If the website can figure out that they are missing business by using Flash, their days are numbered. Youtube i no longer visit because I would have to use the developer tab to set my browser to Ipad mode to get it to work. Seriously, dont mke the end user work for it -- they wont.

pubwvj · Jul 15, 2014

Bravo, Google Team!

Flash is so annoying.

OriginalMacRat · Jul 15, 2014

Cuban Missles said:
Youtube i no longer visit because I would have to use the developer tab to set my browser to Ipad mode to get it to work. Seriously, dont mke the end user work for it -- they wont.

Developer tab?

By default, Youtube tries to send Safari HTML 5 first.

https://www.youtube.com/html5

Google Search Results Now Notifying iPhone Users When Websites Use Flash

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