YouTube finally dropped Flash from its web service just a year after it first deployed its own HTML5 player in 2013.

Users will still be able to use the Flash player, but the HTML5 player will be the default video player. In terms of looks, the YouTube player will look the same but should offer some performance increases.

Like Us on Facebook

This should also mean new YouTube viewers don't have to download Flash to watch videos. Other video sites may still use the Flash player, but generally web developers are moving away from Flash since Adobe's failure in mobile.

Internet Explorer 11, Safari 8, all versions of Chrome and beta version of Firefox will have the YouTube HTML5 player set by default. Google has not released dates for older web browsers, and it is unlikely to be any time in the future.

YouTube is still criticized for hogging up too much bandwidth and memory, but the move to HTML5 should make it less resource intensive.

Having the largest video network in the world move to HTML5 should spell the end for Adobe Flash, and we're pretty sure Adobe knew the death of Flash was coming after several years of decline.

Netflix is also moving to HTML5 in the coming years following the discontinuation of Microsoft Silverlight in 2018. Other players like BBC iPlayer and Twitch.TV are considering a change to HTML5 to accommodate the new open platform.

TagsYouTube, HTML5, video player, Flash, Web browser