Google is planning to phase out full support for Adobe's Flash software on its Chrome browser by the end of 2016. The technology will only be enabled by default on 10 sites, including YouTube and Facebook. On all others, users will have to choose to activate it. Flash, which is used for multimedia content, has become very popular with cyberthieves who exploit bugs to compromise web users. Google follows other browser-makers who have ended support for Flash. The changes would mean that on other sites Chrome would seek to use alternative technologies, such as HTML5, to play video. Where only Flash is available, browser users will be asked if they want to allow the software to run. Chrome will remember which sites have permission to run Flash so users are not endlessly bothered with pop-ups. Many other tech firms, including Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla, have taken steps to stop Flash running. However, it still lives on because many sites still make heavy use of it and many games employ it in ways that are hard to replicate with other web technologies.
Courtest of bbc.com
