Scribd picks new Web technology over Flash

In one of the clearest examples so far of just how much Flash is threatened by next-generation Web technologies, Scribd, a service for hosting and sharing documents online, is moving to a future that doesn’t require Adobe Systems’ plug-in.

“After three years of building on Flash, Scribd is starting over and moving everything to HTML5,” said Scribd co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Jared Friedman in prepared remarks for a speech at the Web 2.0 Expo. “I think it’s the largest deployment of HTML5 to date, and it’s a bet-the-company decision for us.”

So far, so good, he said. “When we first started working on this project six months ago, no one knew whether it was possible,” he said. “We were abandoning a two-year investment in Flash technology, and for a totally unproven idea. Honestly, it wasn’t an easy decision…In Scribd’s case, though, we got lucky, and it actually works great.” .. Read more [via cnet]