Since its inception, YouTube has chosen Flash video technology as its video platform of choice. Due in no small part to YouTube's immense popularity and its use of Flash Video technology, Flash video now accounts for almost 75% of all online video content.  All of this may change now. 

 

Last week, YouTube introduced a beta video player that relies on new HTML5 web standards instead of Flash technology. One of the huge knocks against Flash technology in all its forms (animation player, video player, or desktop platform) was that it is very CPU-intensive, a.k.a. slow, and huge battery drain on many devices.  This is one of the main reasons cited by Apple for not allowing Flash player on the iPhone platform.  YouTube's new HTML5 video player is less CPU-intensive, making it a viable choice even for mobile devices.

 

Of course, Google, YouTube's parent company, has a vested interest in propelling HTML5 technology as HTML web standards are a key component for the Android and Chrome operating system platforms they are trying to push.  Whatever the motive, the fact that YouTube is 'experimenting' with a Flash-less video player is a game-changer. YouTube helped standardize Flash as the online video platform of choice today, and now YouTube may very well lead an exodus away from Flash.

 

On the heels of YouTube's announcement, Vimeo, another leading video site announced a HTML5 video player of their own.  

 

Any shift away from Flash is not going to happen overnight. For one thing, only a handful of browsers -- such as Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome -- support HTML5 today.  Technically, the HTML5 video web standard is still 'in development' as issues such as which codec to support are ironed out.  But the rise and significance of the iPhone and Android mobile platforms, and their support of HTML standards technology, may accelerate the adoption of HTML5 video, far faster than ever before.

 

We might be at the watershed moment for Flash video and for the Flash technology platform in general.