Google Shows How HTML5 Can Run Quake In The Browser
A lot of attention lately has been put on the video capabilities of HTML5 browsers, since the iPad doesn't support Flash. It turns out not to really matter that much because most online video platforms are now drinking the HTML5 Kool-Aid.
Context & Ripple Effects
This demo is the payoff of a pivot Google signaled last November when it waved goodbye to Gears and threw its weight behind HTML5 as the runtime for web apps. What has changed since then is the audience: Apple's Flash-free iPad has turned 'can HTML5 do what Flash does?' from a developer debate into a mainstream consumer question.
First-order effects
- Running Quake natively in a browser answers that question at its most demanding extreme — real-time 3D gaming — giving developers direct evidence that HTML5 can carry workloads previously requiring a plugin.
- For video platforms weighing Flash against HTML5, the demo plus the iPad's absence of Flash support removes a key technical excuse for staying on Flash, which TechCrunch notes most are already abandoning.
Second-order effects
- Adobe's Flash faces pressure on two fronts at once: Apple's device exclusion is forcing video platforms toward HTML5, while Google's demos show even game-grade interactivity escaping the plugin.
- Browser vendors now have a visible performance benchmark — playable 3D games — turning JavaScript and rendering speed into a competitive differentiator for Chrome and its rivals.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the web's application layer consolidates around open standards rendered by the browser itself rather than third-party plugins, shifting platform power toward whoever ships the fastest engine — a contest between Google's Chrome and Apple's WebKit lineage.
- A plugin-free web also changes distribution economics: content reachable by any HTML5 browser is reachable on devices like the iPad, so hardware makers' format choices start steering web technology adoption.
The trend: Web applications are migrating from proprietary plugins like Flash to native HTML5 capabilities, with browser performance demos and device-level format exclusions accelerating the shift.