YouTube and Vimeo is kicking Adobe’s Flash to the curb in favor of the sharp new HTML5.

Both YouTube and Vimeo have announced that they are launching HTML5-based players on their video streaming

sites, thus booting out the long-standing champ of multimedia delivery, Adobe Flash. With recent security issues plaguing Adobe products, it’s no surprise that media giants such as YouTube are jumping ship. What makes HTML5 special is that the new Web standard doesn’t require Adobe’s software to stream content to viewers.

On Wednesday, YouTube launched this portal (TestTube) for HTML5 video, however the drawback is that the new technology is only supported in Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer with Google’s Chrome frame installed.

Vimeo, on the other hand, isn’t launching a separate portal: the service will place an HTML5-related link below each video so that consumers have a choice. Like YouTube’s portal, Vimeo’s HTML5 vidoes will work with Chrome, Safari, Firefox 3.6 and Internet Explorer 8 with Chrome frame installed.

Outside security issues, both companies can now offer videos to devices that do not support Adobe Flash. According to CNET, Vimeo reports that 90-percent of its videos will work in HTML5; YouTube did not provide numbers. However, YouTube videos viewed in HTML5 will supposedly be free of ads and user-created information.

Tom’s Guide