Flash use dips at top Web sites since November

From CNET News.com: Web-page speed guru Steve Souders, putting to use the latest in a string of useful tools he's created, has found that the top 17,000 Web sites have eased off use of Adobe Systems' Flash Player in the last half year.

Specifically, Souders has started showing data collected by his HTTP Archive project, which logs a wide range of statistics about a collection of 17,000 top Web sites. He began logging data last year but only announced the HTTP Archive at the end of March.

The site lets people compare statistics about how Web sites are built from two points in time. One figure that's interesting, given Apple's high-profile attempt to wean the browser world from its reliance on Flash, is a 2 percent drop in Flash usage from 49 percent on November 15, 2010, to 47 percent on March 29.

That's not a huge fraction, but it is probably notable given that it took place over only four and a half months. I'll be keeping an eye out to see if a trend emerges, but I'm hesitant to be too conclusive at this stage; for example, Flash usage actually increased to 50 percent for the December 16 HTTP Archive data.

The archive is fun to poke around, but it's also a handy tool for engineers seeking real data about the Web. Souders hopes it'll be useful for improving Web page performance, which is a very big deal.

That's because people on the Web abandon sites that are slower to respond and spend more time with those that are snappy.

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