Speedtest.net is one of the most popular services for checking the speed of your internet connection. Thus far, the interface has relied on Adobe Flash to perform the test.
However, all of that is going to change soon, as the service is planning to abandon Flash in favor of HTML5.
For many years, Adobe Flash has served as a mainstay of the internet, powering several websites and apps. But in recent years, especially with the advent of HTML5, Flash has fallen out of favor. In fact, Adobe is not shying away from the fact that Flash in itself is a thing of the past — Adobe has already rebranded Flash as Animate CC, and starting January 2016, the new Animate software, for all practical purposes, will focus more on HTML5 and offer Flash support only for the sake of backward compatibility.
So what happens when Speedtest.net moves away from Flash and switches to HTML5? To begin with, you will not require any plugins, and you can run Speedtest using any web browser with no additional requirements. Of course, this move in itself might probably not mean much, but it is another step towards the fact that Flash is dying, and the trend has now shifted towards more modern and less resource-hungry technology.
What do you think of this move from Speedtest.net? Much awaited, or came a bit early? Share your views in the comments below! Plus, you can also grab an early preview of what Speedtest.net on HTML5 will look like — find the beta version here.
Which should I expect to be more reliable? Running both tests, one right after the other, gives me speeds in flash that are half as fast as html5?