desperately killing Flash

Add Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Netflix and others to the list of those who apparently want to see Flash die.

The worlds largest tech companies, including Amazon, Cisco, Google, Intel Corporation, Microsoft, Mozilla and Netflix, are forming the Alliance For Open Media to create an open-source, royalty-free video format, reports Wired. The alliance aims to make a video codec designed for high-quality streaming across a variety of devices.

Adobe Flash was the standard for high quality video playback for a number of years thanks to the fact that it didn't require much computer power to run well. Now it's seen as a serious security hazard and a blight on the internet. Both Chrome and Firefox have plugins to block Flash by default.

As Wired notes, this format would be a tool for major web companies to get away from using Flash to provide streaming video content. According to a blog post by Mozilla, the open-source codec will be released under the Apache 2.0 license.

Since it's royalty-free, virtually anyone would be able to use the codec for their own software. The Alliance is inviting additional parties interested in video to join in helping development.

Notably absent from the Alliance is Apple, which is reportedly trying to make its own content like Amazon and Netflix. Facebook, which is becoming increasingly video focused, is also a major omission.