Last year we said goodbye to Windows 7, but this year we say goodbye to something not only older, but something that served as a visual medium for businesses, artists, advertisers, video game developers, and has been used by just about anyone who has had access to the Internet between 1997 and today. This month, we say goodbye to once-Macromedia, but more recently, Adobe Flash.
Flash Player is a vector-based graphic animation tool which was originally designed for use on early tablets. After a couple of small-business buyouts, it landed in the hands of Macromedia, which was itself bought by Adobe in 2005 for $3.4 Billion.
As innovative as it was, given time it was maliciously ripped open and allowed for multiple security vulnerabilities causing many people to disable Flash Player on recommendation. This led up to the present, where HTML5 has been fully implemented in major browsers for a few years -- making Flash pretty much obsolete. Now, if you take a look at older flash videos or games, you’ll notice just how small they appear on modern-resolution monitors.
If your business’ website uses a Flash interface, it is imperative that you redesign your website ASAP, or else your customers may not be able to use it.
The Internet Archive, which is based out of San Francisco, has been working throughout the past year documenting and saving flash-based videos and games to their website. Here, through the use of emulation, you can look up and experience Flash for decades to come.