The internet is a heady fog of trends. This is ironic seeing as the majority of people who helped create the internet as we know it today are amongst the most inherently un-trendy people in all the universe. There's a Yr9 Geography teacher wearing an ancient, B.O stained green pullover and brown cords laughing until his steel-framed vary-focal spectacles steam up at the shared perception of the geeks who built the modern world. Nonetheless trends drive the internet and whilst Twitter rules the roost at the moment, Facebook is apparently on the wane and could end up being the next MySpace or Friends Reunited if it's not careful.
One of the hardiest trends on-line was the propensity toward Macromedia Flash based sites and for quite a long time all the coolest stuff on the web was done in Flash. It allowed for a richer and more dynamic user experience than HTML alone whose RGB on black nightmares often looked like they had been designed by someone's Nan at the local church 'learn about IT' group and were positively antiquated in comparison. Flash meant that the sky was the limit in terms of animation, sound, video and clever interactive elements that were designed to engage and wow their user-base. The trouble started when it became used to dominate sites with little or no thought given to the actual site content or the user-experience as a whole. The technical constraints of the format meant you would sit and wait five minutes for a splash page to load that looked exactly like the last ten thousand splash pages you had waited to load whilst the site itself was broken, disjointed and light on content. This was assuming you found the Flash site in the first place because it's not exactly been best friends with Google for obvious reasons.
As CSS, web standards and SEO became more and more prevalent, you could hear the all-mighty Adobe (who by this point had crushed whatever meek resistance Macromedia gave to their takeover bid) sitting a little bit less comfortably in their plush leather seats. By 2011 everyone knows Flash is a lame duck and the reason we know this is this because Steve Jobs from Apple told us so and we believe him because despite his sweater obsession, bald head and glasses - is somehow quite cool (must be the squillions of dollars he has). Since Apple don't like Flash this means they have refused to support it on iPhone, iPad and now even the latest version of Apple's flagship operating system OSX doesn't come installed with Flash (although you can still download it for free). This has been killing Flash as a brand and a modern web content tool deader than DarthVadarsDeadDad.com viewed in Netscape on a 486 purchased from Time computers.
What complicates matters a little is that despite the fact we've been bored to death by an infinite number of crap splash pages, crap animations, websites with shit techno-music you can't turn off, shoddy usability and no concern for SEO - some of the coolest sites, games and spots on the internet are Flash based. HTML 5 looks like it's the future and will is great and fully supported by modern browsers on the majority of devices - but Flash isn't quite the past just yet. Maybe, just maybe Adobe have something up their sleeves to make sure it lives on a little longer.
On Friday at the IBC trade show in Amsterdam Adobe announced Flash Media Server 4.5 which will allow the unthinkable - Flash content to be displayed on iPhones and iPads. In a system which sounds to me to be a little bit like OnLive http://onlive.co.uk (the subscription videogame system which will stream games from high-end PCs to lower spec machines and hand-held devices) Adobe have created a clever workaround that allows flash content (video mainly I think) to be displayed whilst circumventing Apple's strict policy. It won't work for users immediately as it will take the web developers time to buy into the new Adobe system and from the sound of things it's not going to be cheap at $4500 - but it's one in the eye for Apple and it will be interesting to see how the scenario pans out.
Read the official quote here: http://www.bgr.com/2011/09/09/adobe-finally-brings-flash-to-iphone-and-ipad
