On: Mozilla may make Flash click-to-play by default in...

[potatolicious]

I am so happy that I can barely contain myself. Hopefully this means Flash will now be used for important things, instead of shoving ads in my face that I can't dismiss, and follow my scroll bar.

[krakensden → potatolicious]

You say that now, but just wait until they're written in JS+Canvas and enormously more difficult to block.

[atdt → krakensden]

Well, it's true that JavaScript- and Canvas- powered ads are harder to distinguish from legitimate web content. But the flip-side is that they're (re-)programmable using standard JavaScript APIs, and thus vulnerable to manipulation by browser extensions in a way that Flash never was, being a proprietary binary format.

[sjs → krakensden]

I don't have any trouble blacklisting domains for JS with current browser extensions. Why would it suddenly get more difficult?

[notatoad → krakensden]

They'll still be iframes or external scripts. Ads will always be trivial to block.

[w1ntermute → krakensden]

Yeah, HTML5 YouTube has the significant disadvantage of autoplay.

[Zirro → w1ntermute]

There's nothing preventing you from blocking HTML5-video just like Flash can be blocked with add-ons today. Personally I use NoScript for that.

[ronaldj → krakensden]

Or CSS3?

[eps → potatolicious]

Seriously? You are that annoyed with Flash and still don't know about FlashBlock?

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/flashblock

[astrodust → potatolicious]

I can't even imagine how many hours I've lost to Flash-induced beachball. Some pages have dozens of little advertisements and assorted trash that take nearly a minute to sort out.

Any effort to make the browser experience smoother is a good thing!