“FutureSplash” was eventually purchased by its competitor, Macromedia, and was rebranded as “Macromedia Flash” in 1996. It was dubbed “FutureSplash” and was the infant version of the Flash we know today but it wasn’t yet a powerful contender in online multimedia playback. Thus the vector-based web animation platform was born. The company quickly realized that vector-based web animation could be a strong contender to Macromedia’s Shockwave player. What exactly is Flash?įlash began as a vector based drawing program developed by FutureWave. You can go ahead and test your website for Flash usage there. Test your website for Flashīy the way, the good people at SEO SiteCheckup have developed a Flash test. If your company’s website is depending on Flash for multimedia content it may not be viewable by the majority of your visitors. Many computers (and most mobile devices) cannot play Flash content and many users have no interest in installing the once dominant software. This poses a difficulty for older business websites with Flash based content. It is being abandoned by Adobe and bug fixes are scheduled to cease completely by December 31, 2020. Flash ruled the Web’s interactive content and its success led to its eventual purchase by Adobe in 2005. Being without Flash meant videos wouldn’t play, slideshows wouldn’t get displayed, and interactive websites wouldn’t load.

Once upon a time you could barely get around the Web without the Flash extension installed on your web browser. Adobe Flash has been used to develop and play animations, audio and video content, games, and web apps.

Flash is a multimedia software platform that was once a dominant force on the Web.

Adobe flash animation