Google's Chrome to block Flash this year - except for 10 top websites

www.zdnet.com ^ | May 16, 2016 | By Liam Tung

[dennisw]

Google will soon close one more door on the Flash plugin in Chrome, requiring users to authorize each and every site where they want Flash to load, rather than running it automatically.

Google has detailed a proposal to make HTML5 the default in Chrome over Adobe's Flash Player.

If all goes to plan, by the fourth quarter of 2016 Chrome will not be using the Flash plugin for the vast majority of the web, and will only make an exception as the default media player for the world's top 10 sites that still rely on Flash.

For the time being, Flash will still be bundled with Chrome, but it will no longer automatically load Flash Player on sites that require it. ​

Instead, users will have to authorize each domain they wish to allow Flash to run on. That preference will be stored in Chrome, so that users don't have to authorize it again when they visit that particular domain in future.

Google outlined the plan in a presentation called 'HTML5 by Default', where it notes that the list of 10 excepted sites will expire after one year.

Presumably after that Chrome will not make any exceptions, meaning users will need to make a conscious choice of selecting each and every site for which they wish to load Flash.

The plan is the latest phase in a long-running effort by Google to move the web away from Flash, which is a constant source of vulnerabilities for desktop users.

Some of the risks from Flash have been reduced by bundling Flash with Chrome, which can force users to update Flash as soon as Adobe releases a patch.

Still, Adobe only last week patched its third zero-day flaw in Flash Player in the past three months, meaning that attackers had found a way to exploit a bug in Flash before Adobe had a patch for it.

Chrome began automatically pausing non-central Flash content on the web last year and Google has been pushing the online ad industry to adopt HTML5 instead of Flash for display ads. Last year it announced plans to go "100 percent HTML5" by January 2, 2017, when it will no longer run Flash display ads on its ad networks.

Adobe has also announced plans to move away from Flash and towards HTML5.

Google notes that in the new HTML5 by Default framework for Chrome, enterprises will have a policy setting for 'Always run Flash content'. Users will also have that option under Content Settings in Chrome.

[kiryandil]

I use Firefox as primary browser and chrome for my #2. Firefox is less of a memory hog when you have say 25 tabs open across 4 browser windows. I have scrutinized Chrome and Firefox memory usage in Windows Task Manager and Firefox uses less memory.

Right. HOWEVER!!!

There is a thing [or two]...

#1 - I don't like the newer versions of Firefox, because they keep updating (or threatening to update) while I'm trying to get other things done.

Enter Chrome. #1 - Chrome://discards. You can "discard" tabs from RAM. The tab stays open, discarding just frees up the RAM.

#2 - shift-Esc: this invokes the Task Manager, but ONLY shows Chrome tab RAM usage.

You can manage your Chrome RAM usage using these two nifty tools. Firefox - not so much... :)

disclaimer - I'm still p*ssed at Firefox for discombobulating a tab management scheme I used all the time. That, coupled with their RAM usage [versus having better control of Chrome RAM usage], has cured me of Firefox dependence.

[dennisw]

I am sorry Firefox screwed you! :(
That chrome://discards/ info is super helful. I just tested it out. This will get me using chrome more often. USEFUL! THANKS!!

As far as discarding Firefox accumulated hogged memory... You probably know this. I go to task manager>>
>>>> under processes tab
>>>> right click firefox to shut it down

>>>>>then since I have session manager installed
>>>> when I restart firefox
>>>> it is stripped clean of snowballed memory hogging
>>>>> and I can accurately restart all the tabs I had opened
>>>>> but usually get rid of many tabs...that webpage info is no longer needed—TODAY at least

[kiryandil]

The way you use the Chrome-only Task Manager option [shift-esc] is to find out which tabs are sucking RAM, then discard them.

You'll find that some of the discarded tabs start "leaking" RAM.

I click on the guilty part(ies), then discard them again.

Mostly, I use [shift-esc] to monitor the worst RAM-hogging tabs.

[kiryandil]

it is stripped clean of snowballed memory hogging

I got screwed doing this a couple of times. Hence the Firefox frowny face on my part.

[dennisw]

The quick n dirty trick I used with chrome was to look at chrome memory usage via windows task manger. Then to shut down the Chrome tab using an inordinate amount of memory, usually due to flash!!!. I often saw the top chrome memory hog tab using twice as much memory as second highest one.