HTML5 vs. Flash – the first rule of fight club…

Posted by alfalaschi on May 25, 2010 0 Comments

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The hot topic of the day when it comes to online video is definitely HTML5. Will it kill Flash? Is it “Open?” What does it mean to me, now?

HTML 5, as it pertains to online video, would remove the need for a third party plugin (Flash) in order to play video. It proposes that web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari support video codecs which would allow you to just place your video on your site, and the browser would play it back natively. There are a number of pluses and minuses that are surfacing in this great debate. The #1 plus is that you would not need to load a third party plugin (Flash) in order to watch video. The #1 minus is that until all major browsers agree on a standard format, the ease of authoring one video and one player that will be viewable on over 95% of browsers in not possible.

There are more pluses and minuses for each situation, but if you look at just these two, today, for SMB’s that are looking for an easy way to post video to the masses, Flash is still the winner. SMB’s don’t have departments dedicated to managing online video. They want the biggest bang for their buck and their minute. Currently Flash is installed on over 95% of all web browsers. So for content creators, the easiest and quickest way to post your content and make sure that over 95% of viewers can watch, flash is it. Everything else takes extra time, effort, technical knowledge, money, and MacGyver coding to even get close, which most SMB’s don’t have.

In addition, Flash allows for some other things like advanced analytics, sharing, playback control and content protection that currently HTML5 does not handle. These things are not primary concerns in terms of simply getting video on the web, but they are very important in terms of optimizing viewing experiences, and being able to see how your video is being viewed/shared, which to SMB’s, give you professional tools to help monitor and adjust video campaigns quickly and efficiently.

Watch closely though, as this discussion will continue to heat up and change as new developments are unveiled.