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ClickToFlash allows Safari users to isolate Flash content and play it only when they so choose

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 · 12:04 am · 56 Comments

“As Adobe works to port its full Flash Player to mobile platforms and highlights its upcoming support in CS5 for building iPhone apps using Flash tools, an open source group is leading a drive to kill Flash on the desktop using a WebKit plugin named ClickToFlash,” Daniel Eran Dilger reports for AppleInsider.

“ClickToFlash allows Safari users to isolate Flash content on the web so that it only plays when they choose to allow it. Flash content is replaced with a bounding box that enables the user to ignore the item (such as with ads) or to click the placeholder to activate Flash playback as desired,” Dilger reports.

“Additionally, the plugin can convert requests for YouTube Flash videos into requests for higher quality H.264 videos, allowing desktop users to bypass Flash the same way the iPhone does, and simply play any YouTube videos using the browser’s own built-in HTML5 support for direct H.264 playback,” Dilger reports.

Much more, including links and screenshots, in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "James W." for the heads up.]

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Comment Feed

56 Comments

1 2 3 Next »

breeze

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:08 am · Reply

Right On !!!

Flash is like a virus
XJMPasadena CA.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:09 am · Reply

Yaaaaay meeee!!!
TheConfuzed1

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:13 am · Reply

Okay… Explain this to me as if I’ve been drinking… Because, well… I have been.
PR

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:14 am · Reply

I’ve been using this for a long time…It works GREAT
TowerTone

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:16 am · Reply

I already use “UnZip2Flash”.
Oddly enough, when used, I sometimes hear a noise similiar to small children crying
i<3lamp

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:17 am · Reply

Awesome

now all I need is something to block those pesky Vibrant ads from popping up when i mouse over them I’ll be all set!
John

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:19 am · Reply

I’ve been using this for a couple months now, and it’s amazing how much better web surfing is without all the flash crap loaded on web pages. Thanks to the folks who’ve been working on this–a definite improvement in the quality of life!
Eric24601

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 12:19 am · Reply

i love Click2Flash. It doesn’t always work with all the website i visit tho. Fandango being the number one problem for me. Please fix this.
lolcat

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 1:17 am · Reply

@Towertone.
That’s just you.
Jubei

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 1:30 am · Reply

Every Mac user should use this as a default! Thats how awesome this thing is.
almux

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 2:03 am · Reply

html5, please!
richb

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 3:00 am · Reply

doesn’t work on 10.3! bummer
Altivec Guru

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 3:10 am · Reply

Sign me up. Adobe Flash is the devil.
Foaming Solvent

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 3:22 am · Reply

Use it, love it. I have more free memory and less CPU usage now — less CPU usage means I’m probably using a lot less electricity, too. No doubt ClickToFlash has reduced my carbon footprint.

Advertisers take note: I love to look at your ads that pay for the content I view on the web, but I will never again view an ad of yours that uses Flash. So you should just knock that feces off right now.

Now, if someone would write ClickToSilverlight, I might be willing to install Silverlight.
John C. Randolph

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 3:23 am · Reply

ClickToFlash is the finest thing that Jonathan Rentsch has ever done for his fellow Mac users, and he’s done quite a few other things for us.

-jcr
Macaday

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 3:35 am · Reply

ClickToFlash has been put on every Mac I have touched in the last few months. It is essential.

I really hope this is the beginning of the end of Flash.

You had a good run with it Adobe, now please get in line and help HTML5 to successfully replace it.
Brulek

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 3:43 am · Reply

Death to flash! It’s a scourge of microsh*tesque proportions. Flashblock for firefox is also good. The sooner we move to HTML 5 and kill off flash and silverlight the better.
Macdoc

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 4:15 am · Reply

Adobe has not been the same company since John retired.
British Mac Head

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 4:33 am · Reply

Oh for gods sake some of you on here are so single minded. If Flash was developed by Apple you would all swear by it!!!

While I agree that JavaScript has become a better way than Flash to deliver rich media on the web it’s not yet perfect.

Flash doesn’t cause compatibility issues at all, unlike Internet Explorer’s ubiquity coupled up with it’s near total lack of standards support.

Every major browser can support Flash and it looks and works the same regardless of what platform it’s on so in this sense it is an asset to the web.

I’ve been a web designer/developer for over 10 years so I know a little something about what I am talking about. I am also a VR photographer and pretty much the whole virtual tour industry (much of it Mac based) rely on Flash based plug-ins to deliver our work. It is the ideal media to use (because of it’s speed and stability) to write this sort of plug-in.

Our company uses a flash plugin called FPP (flash panorama plugin – flashpanoramas.com) to do all the funky stuff and it’s amazing.

We would all be using QTVR if Apple hadn’t let the entire VR industry down by discontinuing it’s development many many years ago. QTVR is good for high quality stand alone VRs but as far as functionality is concerned it’s rubbish, it has no XML based (or anything else based for that matter) control language. All you can do with it is put hotspots on it that take you from VR to VR. With the flash based environments you can use flat XML files to control onLoad, onClick etc event based functionality.

All of the best VR environments work as Flash plugins and JavaScript is not powerful enough to do the things the Flash based panoramic plug-ins can do with ease. That’s why no developers have produced a proper all singing all dancing VR library for JavaScript.

Also I know many Mac based Flash designers. These are graphic designers who are way too right-brained to figure out how to hand code the kinds of effects they do using jQuery or Scriptaculous/Prototype.
DX

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 - 4:56 am · Reply

I’m an ex Flash designer as well and all I can say is I LOVE THIS PLUGIN. ClickToFlash has improved my life. Flash sucks.