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Topic: Google

Rumor: Google, Adobe may get chummier with Chrome, Flash partnership

Summary: Google appears to be on the verge of bundling its Chrome browser and or operating system with Adobe's Flash in a deeper partnership.

Larry Dignan

By for Between the Lines |

Google is planning to bundle its Chrome browser and or operating system with Adobe's Flash in a deeper partnership, we've heard from reliable sources.

The announcement, which is expected to go down on Tuesday, is an interesting wrinkle ahead of the launch of Apple's iPad, which famously doesn't include Flash. Adobe and Apple relations are chilly to say the least.

If Google is bundling Chrome and Flash in a deeper partnership it could indicate that the two parties are drawing a line in the sand against Apple. Details about the partnership announcement were sparse. Chrome already works with Flash, but the announcement may include future versions of the Chrome browser or may focus on Google's Chrome operating system (right). Making Flash a part of the Google stack of software would be notable. Google representatives weren't able to confirm or deny the rumor. Calls are out to Adobe.

On Adobe's earnings conference call last week CEO Shantanu Narayen indicated that Google was a partner and Apple had issues. He said:

I think we’ve been fairly transparent about that issue, which is we are committed to bringing Flash to any platform on which there is a screen, and it has nothing to do with technology. I think you’ve seen demonstrations of Flash running on smart phones from multiple vendors; at Mobile World Congress including Android where Eric (Schmidt) showed it as part of his keynote.

It’s nothing to do with technology. It’s an Apple issue and I think you’ll have to check with them on that.

While the Chrome-Flash bundle won't change the tech world, it's a high-profile validation of Adobe, which can use all the big brothers it can get as its Apple spat garners more attention.

Related:

Topics: Google, Apple, Browser, Enterprise Software, Hardware, Mobility, Smartphones, Software Development

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21 comments
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  • Bad news for M$ too?

    Having suggested a M$ + ADOBE hook-up in the past ... my only reasons to hang on to Windows are EXCEL, PHOTOSHOP and LIGHTROOM.

    Google OS + ADOBE is only lacking the spreadsheet.
    johnfenjackson@...
    Reply Vote

    • I agree, M$ is toast

      The force is with FOSS!
      Linux Geek
      Reply Vote

    • How so?

      Half the posts I read here is how bad Flash is, and Silverlight 2 supports chrome.

      I can see this as Google trying to get some partners in their corner to counter the iPad, a viable threat to Chrome OS on a tablet, but not really a threat to MS.
      AllKnowingAllSeeing
      Reply Vote

      • really?

        [i]Half the posts I read here is how bad Flash is, and Silverlight 2 supports chrome.[/i]
        M$ supporting Google's chrome...where did you get that?
        Linux Geek
        Reply Vote

        • probally the same place others did

          right here

          http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1636
          John Zern
          Reply Vote

  • Validation my A**. Google can afford the dead end trip but WHY! - NT

    NT
    raycote
    Reply Vote

  • Funny

    Many of Google's moves in the past have specifically been aimed to
    eliminate the need for technologies like Flash, Silverlight and
    JavaFX (their wholehearted support of HTML5 for instance).
    This seems like a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my
    friend." And a note to Apple: before you can behave like an
    evil monopoly (trying to marginalize technologies you don't
    like, for instance), you first need to have the monopoly.
    gigabot71
    Reply Vote

  • If this is true, good bye Chrome

    When Flash becomes a part of Chrome, Chrome is no longer open source. Wasn't Chrome's original intention to promote web standards instead of proprietary, opaque solutions?
    frankenstone
    Reply Vote

    • No.

      "Chromium" the project that Chrome is based on is Open Source. Chrome the finished product that Google distributes is their special tweaked version.
      jperlow
      Reply Vote

    • No

      You should thing of the advantage this will give
      google, not how your ethics are reflected in
      software - don't worry, chrome will always be free
      dittonamed
      Reply Vote

  • There goes Chrome's "security"...

    nt
    PollyProteus
    Reply Vote

    • security won't change

      you already use the flash player - this wouldn't
      change anything for you
      dittonamed
      Reply Vote

  • Damn and I was just starting to like Chrome...

    The sooner Flash disappears, the better.

    Every browser I use has a Flash blocker running. I really hate Flash, or rather its overuse for no real reason.

    A lot of sites would be quicker, more standards compliant and easier to use, if they didn't use Flash gimmicks, which replicate what you can do in HTML and CSS... :-S
    wright_is
    Reply Vote

    • Flash makes up too much more of the web then the ads on the sides

      Flash makes up so many of the games and a lot of the interactive content on the web, about 75% of it. You can't replace the things you can do with flash with HTML and CSS, maybe with javascript. Even if you could, Flash is much simpler for the upcoming developer to use. We're supposed to be talking about innovation, Flash is a simple place to start. By the way a lot of sites would load quicker if you had a good computer, weren't using IE (get chrome), and have a fast internet connection (get Optimum or Fios, your shitty DSL isn't cutting it). Flash should not be a dying technology it should be improving just like every other part of the web and technology in general.
      kissinconcert8
      Reply Vote

      • Flash != Innovation

        The problem is, people use Flash when they shouldn't.

        For a start, Adverts should not be Flash, they should not overlay themselves over top of the content I've come to the site to read.

        Any site that uses Flash advertising only has itself to blame if people don't come back or don't see the adverts because of Flash blockers. I stopped using ad blockers a couple of years ago, sites have to make a living.

        But if the site is just going to annoy me with unnecessary Flash adverts, I'll just block them. I'm happy to look at JPEG and text advertisements, but they shouldn't distract me from actually using the site.

        The same goes for menus and banners etc. I recently wrote a complete inventory tracking system in HTML and CSS, with a smattering of JavaScript. It was easy to use, had drop down menus and was fast. It also ran on any platform - although IE6 had to use an alternative menu structure (IE7/8, Opera, Safari, Firefox and Chrome all ran it without needing any hacks). But a lot of drop-down menu systems I see needlessly use Flash. It adds a layer of complexity to the web site, it blocks people out who don't/can't run Flash.

        I nicked the drop down menu's style from a Flash project another team were building, to keep the style for internal sites the same. The menus worked identically, apart from the HTML ones loaded quicker, reacted faster to mouse movements and were easier to maintain.

        Again, simplicity != innovation. To be honest, I found HTML + CSS much easier and much more fun than trying to slog away in Flash. Flash was innovative a decade and a half ago, today it is a bloated warthog of vulnerabilities.

        If you can do a complete drop down menu system in a couple of KB of HTML and CSS, why waste time downloading a larger Flash object and waiting for it to initialise?

        I agree with your last sentence. The problem is, Adobe have just been bloating it out, it needs to be thinner, faster and more efficient - and above all, they need to address its security model, it is a complete mess at the moment! It is also a processor hog!

        I keep Flash around for the odd game or poorly designed site, but I probably enable Flash objects on about 2% of the sites I visit.

        Flash isn't an inherently bad platform, it just gets misused a lot by lazy developers looking to take shortcuts, instead of trying to make a good, easy to use site.

        I visited the Toyota (Germany) site recently and they had Flash objects which were had static images and linked to a different page. They could have accomplished the same thing with a jpg or png image in an <a> tag, it would have worked with every browser and would have loaded quicker! That is the sort of thing that annoys me most about Flash.
        wright_is
        Reply Vote

    • RE: Rumor: Google, Adobe may get chummier with Chrome, Flash partnership

      @wright_is
      Seems like you have no idea what flash is ? and what it is used for ?.. you are comparing HTML and CSS with flash ?!?
      You can make anything imaginable in Flash!.. Comparing just HTML + CSS with flash is a insult to Flash. Flash is not just about design. It has a full fledge Object Oriented Programming language attached with it. You can create simply amazing apps in it (provided you know how to do it, which i really doubt). Stuff which you mentioned or talked about is literally related with how you use one application. If you use flash only for navigations and again you use it improperly, you do it poorly.. then its not the fault of flash!!.. Its fault of you!.. One can do poor CSS work as well.. Utilities of flash are beyond just creating menus, websites.. Flash was just used for menus, designs, websites or animations yrs ago. Now it has spread everywhere. Now it has crossed the limits, Its power has increased incredibly. You are living in old times.. Just tell me how can u make a full fledge live cam to cam realtime conferening app OR how you can make stunning addictive games (which is itself a huge industry) OR how you can make a photoshop like tool for browser OR how you can make a Tshirt designer or house decorator Or Car designer Or any Rich internet application which you can imagine !!!. Its the Flash age!!..
      itsjawad
      Reply Vote

  • Chrome does not work well with Flash

    If zoom your page even a little (like most will do when using
    a bigger monitor), the flash controls (like play/stop in
    videos) stop working under Chrome. This has been a known
    problem for a long time that Google never cared to fix.

    Actions speak louder than words and at this point it looks
    like just words...
    drorharari
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Rumor: Google, Adobe may get chummier with Chrome, Flash partnership

    Oh wow, that actually makes sense dude.

    Lou
    www.anon-browsing.eu.tc
    peetoot
    Reply Vote

  • RE: Rumor: Google, Adobe may get chummier with Chrome, Flash partnership

    @PollyProteus That is incredibly naive thing to
    say. All this would do is eliminate the need to
    download
    the
    flash player - which you already do
    dittonamed
    Reply Vote

    • Or not...

      If it is a separate download, I can decide whether I want to take the risk of installing Flash or not.

      If it is integrated into Chrome, I don't have that choice...

      That said, on this machine, I have Flash installed, but run FlashBlock so that I only need to load elements on a page that are truly necessary.
      wright_is
      Reply Vote
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