Google Playing Around with a Flash-free YouTube

Image via CrunchBase

HTML5 and the video tag mean that the next generation of browsers won't need a plug-in to play video. Firefox 3.5 already has this, and Mozilla has put its weight behind OGG Theora, even though the HTML5 spec doesn't specify right now what containers or codecs should be used. H.264 originally beat out Theora in tests, but recent advancements in Theora, partially funded by Mozilla, have reversed the outcome.

Google's not blind to these events, and has coded up a Flash-free version of YouTube, using the video tag instead.

"This is an experiment," Google vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra told developers. "We are not announcing today that YouTube will be built this way. But we wanted to show it to you to get your creative juices flowing."

Google is wholeheartedly  supporting HTML5 and ECMAScript as the way forward and is trying to reduce the need for proprietary plug-ins, first by using HTML and ECMAScript for extensions, then by creating an HTML5 version of GMail for phones, and finally with this new, Flash-free YouTube.

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Help YouTube Install Flash Properly

Image via Wikipedia

Most users run to YouTube first to check their Flash capability, and they are told that Flash isn't working for them. YouTube helpfully offers a download from the Adobe site, but this doesn't help many new users.

This problem occurs because YouTube uses Javascript to detect the Flash version. Other sites not using Javascript and containing Flash videos trigger the plug-in finder.

Solution #1: Ask Adobe for help
Ask Adobe to place an apt:adobe-flashplugin link on the download page that YouTube links to. Make sure that this link is clearly for Ubuntu users.

The user will click the link and Flash will be installed from the repositories.

Solution #2: Re-write the YouTube link to be an apt: link.
We could use Greasemonkey and a userscript to rewrite the link to Adobe into an apt: link installing the software. This would require Greasemonkey to be installed by default. There could be space and security ramifications.