Google will integrate the Adobe Flash Player into its Chrome browser and work with Adobe Systems, Mozilla and others to define the next generation of the browser plug-in application programming interface (API). The announcement Tuesday by the search giant could have an impact on competition among mobile devices and on the next generation of multimedia on the web.
Initially distributed through Google’s developer channel, the integrated Chrome with Flash will eventually be available to all Chrome users. This means that users who download Chrome will also receive the latest version of the Flash player, without having to download and install it separately. Updates to Flash will be made automatically, using Chrome’s auto-update feature.
HTML5 Versus Flash?
Improving the browser plug-in API, wrote Google Vice President of Engineering Linus Upson in a post on the company’s Chromium blog, will “make it possible for plug-ins to be just as fast, stable and secure as the browser’s HTML and JavaScript engine.” He added that, eventually, HTML, Flash and other plug-ins will be able to be used “more seamlessly in rendering and scripting.”
Paul Betiem of Adobe’s Flash Player engineering team wrote Tuesday on the company’s Flash blog that the new API will be operating system- and browser-neutral, will enable plug-ins to be more tightly integrated with browsers, and will be more secure. He also said there should be a performance boost because information will be shared more readily between plug-in and browser.
The announcement by Google comes at a time when some industry observers have speculated that the company was trying to position the new HTML5 standard as a multimedia alternative to Adobe’s proprietary Flash technology.
Last week, video platform vendor Brightcove announced a new framework to serve HTML5 video for users on an Apple iPhone, iPod touch, or the upcoming iPad. Apple has been the most…