Chrome to ‘freeze’ Flash banners on September 1

As of September 1, Google will pause banners made with Flash within Chrome, after which they will only play if an internet user indicates that they want to. Google wants to promote the speed of Chrome and ensure longer battery life with, for example, laptops.

The pause of the Flash ads was announced in June but should start on September 1, Google reports. Not all Flash content is disabled: ‘essential content’, such as embedded players, will continue to work automatically. In addition, Google emphasizes that many Flash ads that are added to its AdWords network are already converted to HTML5.

If internet users still want to see the paused banners, they should right click and click the ‘run this’ option. By no longer running them automatically, Google wants to speed up loading times and reduce the consumption of systems running Chrome for longer battery times. In addition, Flash has been under fire for years for security issues, which has further accelerated the shift to HTML5.