Google isn't taking sides in the Adobe Flash/HTML5 war...

Google’s not making any apologies for including Flash in the latest Chrome update. And they’re making it easy to turn off for those who prefer to run through the internet Flash-less. Then there’s the fact that they’ve included support for HTML5…  It would appear Google is decidedly neutral in regards to the way video is handled in their browser as both formats are enabled by default. In addition to the Flash enabled software, Google is including five fixes with the latest update, two of which directly deal with the way video is handled by Chrome.

But it doesn’t stop there. The recent upgrade to Android 2.2 (otherwise known as “Froyo???) includes Flash 10.1 and benchmarks have shown the software to be playing well with the Android operating system. It’s a good bet that the dual support will be included in Google’s impending OS version of Chrome and I’m going to go out on a limb and call this a good thing.

I don’t know about the rest of the world but I’d prefer to have the choice as to what content I am able to view and download when I’m going to drop cold, hard cash for a multimedia device. I don’t like the idea that the device I just dropped hundreds of dollars on will force me to choose one viewing format over another. If I prefer Flash, why can’t I make the choice to use it?

Apple may very well end up ruling the cellular world with the iPhone and may have created a new market with the iPad but I’m just not convinced by Steve Jobs’ rant that Flash is “too buggy and too power intensive??? to not at least want the option to use it on their devices.

There’s every reason in the world to believe that Google is capable of producing a functional and aesthetically pleasing desktop OS and by the simple fact that they’re building Flash support into their products, they may have just gained one more fan.

Gritskrieg – End of Line