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Scribd Switches To HTML5

Posted by timothy on from the let-a-thousand-documents-bloom dept.

drfreak writes "This story from OSNews describes Scribd, a site for uploading and reading documents, switching from Flash to HTML5. The major reason for the decision was that HTML5 supports all the major points of the site's previous functionality, so they saw no point in using Flash any more. The big improvement in the rollout is that documents are now first-class citizens of HTML and no longer need to sit in a Flash 'window.'"

6 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Wow by OrwellianLurker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Completely blank page (scribd) until I enabled flash. I can't stand sites that have the most basic shit (plain text, etc) in flash. How is that even necessary? Good move getting off that Flash addiction.

    --
    'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' - Mao Tse-tung
    1. Re:Wow by vtcodger · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Right on. Scribd has traditionally been a candidate for the worst designed site on the Internet managing to combine flash abuse, baffling layout, slow response, and wretched human factors in one tidy package. I started avoiding Scribd links months ago.

      The bright side. I don't see how HTML5 could possibly make it any worse.

      --
      You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
  2. Scribd in HTML5 by noackjr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Their own introduction:
    http://www.scribd.com/documents/30964170/Scribd-in-HTML5

  3. Re:So What? by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What the hell does some random site changing browser tech have to do with the rest of the 97 percent of the computing world that doesn't give a damn about Apple and their products?

    Just because we don't care about Apple, that doesn't mean that we want Flash; I'll celebrate the day I can finally uninstall that bloated swamp of security holes from all my PCs.

  4. Not Really HTML5... by Torrance · · Score: 5, Informative

    So far as I can tell this is mostly just html4.1 plus some web-fonts thrown in (which is properly css3), and a bunch of mostly browser-specific css. Not really html5. They mention canvas in their introduction, but I haven't come across an example.

    Certainly looks better than the flash, but take a look at the source code and it'll make your eyes bleed. So much for semantic code - there are spans and divs up the wazoo.

  5. Wow. by mcrbids · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You mean an open standard won out over a proprietary implementation?

    Flash is about to be marginalized. It will happen quickly, in much the same way as the open HTML/DOM/Javascript beat out over 20 years of Microsoft "innovations" such as VB and .NOT. And in much the same way as Android is about the slaughter the iPhone.

    See, open standards usually follow proprietary "trail blazers". Once the standard has been defined, copy-cats move in and do the same things, cheaper.

    Apple originally won the desktop computer war, then lost it to the more open (and less expensive) Microsoft, which finally is losing it's lead to the even more open (and inexpensive) web/SOAP API. Apple got it right again with the iPhone, but is already losing it again with the highly proprietary iPhone now rapidly losing market share rapidly against the more open Linux/Google/Android platform. (Android's 4x marketshare growth in a single month - WTF!?!)

    As a note, I have an HTC WinMo phone right now, but my next phone will almost assuredly be... Android!

    --
    I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.