We already said RIP to Flash, an outdated technology that was once pretty cool, back when browsers generally stopped supporting it. 2020 is the year that Adobe, the owner of Flash, will stop distributing and supporting the software. The final end of life date for Flash will be December 31, 2020. Google will stop indexing Flash next year, too. That means that any Flash elements on your website will not be offered to searchers. Also, most people will not be able to see your Flash stuff.
Do you have Flash on your website?
You can find out by doing a search like this: “.swf site:https://www.hadeninteractive.com” You should just replace the URL (web address) of our site with the address of yours. (There are also checkup tools online, if that seems hard.)
If Google can’t find anything with this search, then you don’t have Flash objects on your website. You can go ahead with your life.
We have no Flash on this website, nor on any website we manage for a client. However, we were able to find a Flash element on our lab site.
I remember this was a very cool animation by Sean Sallings. It demonstrated an interesting method of finding the square of a number. This was the kind of thing that Flash used to be good at.
Now it just says, “[swfobj src=”http://www.myfreshplans.com/images/Square-Roots.swf” alt=”Sean Sallings “How to Square a Number””]” and most of us can’t see the animation at all.
What to do if you have Flash elements
The first solution is simply to delete the element. That’s what we did the post above. We took a moment to feel sad about the loss of the cool animation, and got rid of the post.
However, the animation below, also by Sean Sallings, was once a Flash object. We converted it into a different type of file.
This is an option for some Flash elements. You can use software to convert Flash objects into HTML5 elements. Export your old Flash elements as HTML5 elements, and you’re set. Adobe’s Captivate is one option, but there are also many Flash to HTML5 converters.
If you can still play your Flash animation at your website, you could also use software to record your screen and save it as a video file.
Think before you convert
Flash was used to build lots of games and educational animations, and it can make sense to convert those elements and continue using them.
However, if your website was built with Flash, it’s probably outdated in more ways than that. It’s probably time to update your website with more current content and a more modern design.
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