5 ms·

Chrome 55 chooses HTML5 over Flash by default, drastically reduces RAM usage

127 points by cpncrunch 10y ago

campuscodi 10y ago
This article is inaccurate. There is no Top 10 list. According to the Google HBD plan, the browser uses the Site Engagement metric. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/106_KLNJfwb9L-1hVVa4i29aw1YXUy9qFX-Ye4kvJj-4/edit#slide=id.p https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/106_KLNJfwb9L-1hVVa4i...
- ec109685 10y ago
  And site engagement is private to the person, so for the sites you visit frequently, it won't block/prompt initially, while other sites, it will.
- ape4 10y ago
  Yes, the last page of that presentation says: There is no longer any notion of a Whitelist for this feature The original proposal called for seeding the feature with a list of sites who had Flash usage above 1% (i.e. a “Top 10” list), to limit over-prompting. Instead we have updated our design to use Site Engagement to better tailor our enablement, of the feature, based on the browsing habits of the end user (i.e. it’s a reflection of the sites that they visit).
hartator 10y ago
> An exception to this rule only applies to the top 10 websites that use Flash (and only for a year). Those sites are: YouTube.com, Facebook.com, Yahoo.com, VK.com, Live.com, Yandex.ru, OK.ru, Twitch.tv, Amazon.com and Mail.ru. I think net neutrality is good for PR, but whenever they have to make a decision...
- chipperyman573 10y ago
  Why is twitch on there? They switched to entirely HTML5 a few months ago Edit: And youtube? And Facebook? I have flash disabled (chrome://plugins) and haven't seen any issues on any of those sites.
  - Gankro 10y ago
    You can turn the Twitch HTML5 player off. I had to do this on my laptop (chrome on macos) a few months ago because the HTML5 player was too unstable. Like, I didn't even know they had made the change, I was just losing my mind because I couldn't reliably watch stuff, and noticed it in the settings.
  - dawnerd 10y ago
    Yeah, kinda funny that youtube still uses flash. Then again I'm not all that surprised considering all the weird decisions Youtube makes.
cryptarch 10y ago
For a second I thought someone implemented a HTML5 renderer in Flash, thank god that's not the case...
- Turing_Machine 10y ago
  Yes, I thought something similar. "Chooses HTML5 over Flash" or "prefers HTML5 to Flash" might be better phrasing than "loads HTML5 over Flash"
  - dang 10y ago
    Ok, s/load/choose/ it is.
profmonocle 10y ago
Seems to be disabled by default. I can enable the new behavior by going to chrome://flags/#prefer-html-over-flash, but when I set that flag to "default" Flash works the same as before. Has Google confirmed this actually made it into Chrome 55? Their blog post[1] about the release doesn't mention it. One of the article's sources is from earlier this year, and the developer thread they link to has been quiet for about a month. I wonder if plans changed and they're leaving it behind a flag for now, or if they're A/B testing it somehow. [1] https://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2016/12/stable-channel-update-for-desktop.html https://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2016/12/stable-cha...
butz 10y ago
Who and why are still using Flash?
- jbverschoor 10y ago
  google finance
- abrowne 10y ago
  Many BBC videos, if you don't use an iPad useragent.
  - micv 10y ago
    They seem to have at least made iPlayer available without Flash now. That was a nice surprise.
- camoby 10y ago
  most adult 'cam' sites. (cough allegedly)
- raldi 10y ago
  NestCam
- Aldo_MX 10y ago
  As ridiculous as it may sound, to display GIFs in Facebook :/
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- sscotth 10y ago
  The New Zealand Government (Dec 1, 2016) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=11758429 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5... > They originally considered using HTML5 but opted for Flash because it was more likely to be commonly supported. > "We also wanted as wide a range of users as possible to access these reports, so we opted for Flash instead," the spokesman said. "On balance Flash is best at this time."
agumonkey 10y ago
v56 also cut memory consumption, it was so dramatic compared to v53 that it registered as an accounting change to my brain.

127 points by cpncrunch 10y ago

This article is inaccurate. There is no Top 10 list. According to the Google HBD plan, the browser uses the Site Engagement metric. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/106_KLNJfwb9L-1hVVa4i29aw1YXUy9qFX-Ye4kvJj-4/edit#slide=id.p https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/106_KLNJfwb9L-1hVVa4i...

ec109685 10y ago
And site engagement is private to the person, so for the sites you visit frequently, it won't block/prompt initially, while other sites, it will.
ape4 10y ago
Yes, the last page of that presentation says: There is no longer any notion of a Whitelist for this feature The original proposal called for seeding the feature with a list of sites who had Flash usage above 1% (i.e. a “Top 10” list), to limit over-prompting. Instead we have updated our design to use Site Engagement to better tailor our enablement, of the feature, based on the browsing habits of the end user (i.e. it’s a reflection of the sites that they visit).

hartator 10y ago

> An exception to this rule only applies to the top 10 websites that use Flash (and only for a year). Those sites are: YouTube.com, Facebook.com, Yahoo.com, VK.com, Live.com, Yandex.ru, OK.ru, Twitch.tv, Amazon.com and Mail.ru. I think net neutrality is good for PR, but whenever they have to make a decision...

chipperyman573 10y ago
Why is twitch on there? They switched to entirely HTML5 a few months ago Edit: And youtube? And Facebook? I have flash disabled (chrome://plugins) and haven't seen any issues on any of those sites.
- Gankro 10y ago
  You can turn the Twitch HTML5 player off. I had to do this on my laptop (chrome on macos) a few months ago because the HTML5 player was too unstable. Like, I didn't even know they had made the change, I was just losing my mind because I couldn't reliably watch stuff, and noticed it in the settings.
- dawnerd 10y ago
  Yeah, kinda funny that youtube still uses flash. Then again I'm not all that surprised considering all the weird decisions Youtube makes.

cryptarch 10y ago

For a second I thought someone implemented a HTML5 renderer in Flash, thank god that's not the case...

Turing_Machine 10y ago
Yes, I thought something similar. "Chooses HTML5 over Flash" or "prefers HTML5 to Flash" might be better phrasing than "loads HTML5 over Flash"
- dang 10y ago
  Ok, s/load/choose/ it is.

profmonocle 10y ago

Seems to be disabled by default. I can enable the new behavior by going to chrome://flags/#prefer-html-over-flash, but when I set that flag to "default" Flash works the same as before. Has Google confirmed this actually made it into Chrome 55? Their blog post[1] about the release doesn't mention it. One of the article's sources is from earlier this year, and the developer thread they link to has been quiet for about a month. I wonder if plans changed and they're leaving it behind a flag for now, or if they're A/B testing it somehow. [1] https://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2016/12/stable-channel-update-for-desktop.html https://googlechromereleases.blogspot.com/2016/12/stable-cha...

butz 10y ago

Who and why are still using Flash?

jbverschoor 10y ago
google finance
abrowne 10y ago
Many BBC videos, if you don't use an iPad useragent.
- micv 10y ago
  They seem to have at least made iPlayer available without Flash now. That was a nice surprise.
camoby 10y ago
most adult 'cam' sites. (cough allegedly)
raldi 10y ago
NestCam
Aldo_MX 10y ago
As ridiculous as it may sound, to display GIFs in Facebook :/
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
sscotth 10y ago
The New Zealand Government (Dec 1, 2016) http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=11758429 http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5... > They originally considered using HTML5 but opted for Flash because it was more likely to be commonly supported. > "We also wanted as wide a range of users as possible to access these reports, so we opted for Flash instead," the spokesman said. "On balance Flash is best at this time."

agumonkey 10y ago

v56 also cut memory consumption, it was so dramatic compared to v53 that it registered as an accounting change to my brain.