Facebook today announced that every video you see on its website now plays in HTML5 by default — and across all browsers, a change the company said « best enables us to continue to innovate quickly and at scale, given Facebook’s large size and complex needs. » Adobe itself recently acknowledged that it’s time to leave Flash behind, and back in July, Facebook’s security chief called for the Flash creator to announce an end-of-life date for the technology which, thanks to oft-discovered vulnerabilities, is a constant target of malicious software.
« We decided to initially launch the HTML5 player to only a small set of browsers, and continuously roll out to more browsers, versions, and operating systems as we improved it and fixed small bugs, » Facebook’s Daniel Baulig wrote in a blog post. If you’ve been using anything resembling a modern PC, you’ve likely already been getting served HTML5-based videos for some time now. But some older browsers didn’t fare well with the newer standard, suffering longer load times and experiencing more bugs. « That’s why we waited until today to ship the HTML5 player to all browsers by default, with the exception of a small set of them, » said Baulig.
Facebook is now fairly confident that it’s addressed those problems and HTML5 should provide a good experience across the board. Another issue was that HTML5 videos caused Facebook’s website to load a bit slower than normal, something Baulig says has also been fixed. « We finally reached a level we felt happy with shipping, » he said. Aside from being more secure and optimized for the future, Facebook says HTML5 just makes the experience of using its social network better for everyone.
« People appear to be spending more time with video because of it, » wrote Baulig. « Videos are an enriching way to connect with the world around you, and we’re happy we could make the Facebook video experience better. » Flash-based games aren’t going away, however, with Facebook noting that it will collaborate with Adobe to ensure that the gaming experience will remain « reliable and secure. »
- SourceFacebook