jQuery 'overtakes' Flash

According to jQuery support, training and consulting company appendTo, the popular open source library has now ‘overtaken’ Flash, in terms of how many websites have deployed each technology, at least when it comes to the world’s ‘top’ websites.

In a press release, appendTo reveals that statistics compiled by HTTP Archive, analysing the world’s top 17,000 websites, show 48 per cent of the sites use jQuery, compared to the 47 per cent that use Flash.

Naturally, appendTo is happy with this development. Co-founder and CEO Mike Hostetler reckons the data “confirms a trend that’s been a couple [of] years in the making” and argues that designers and developers are increasingly choosing jQuery and JavaScript over Flash for adding interactivity to websites.

The company is also keen on jQuery's advance because it further cements the push of web standards online: co-founder and president Jonathan Sharp argues that the key technologies within a ‘typical’ website are “HTML, CSS and JavaScript”, and jQuery has for a while been the leading JavaScript library. “Now that it has eclipsed Flash, it is also the leading tool for creating interactive websites,” he argues. And Hostetler notes that it’s also “open source instead of a proprietary product, like Flash,” adding that in “five years it has surpassed Adobe Flash, which has been around since 1996”.

According to the press release, the list of 17,000 top websites that HTTP Archive uses is generated from Alexa 500, Alexa US 500, Alexa 10,000, Fortune 500, Global 500 and Quantcast10K. Therefore, the figures must have a margin of error when applied to the web as a whole; however, Adobe’s shift towards jQuery with Edge suggests even the creative giant realises the trend for basic website interaction is towards web standards and away from its plug-in.

Do you work with jQuery or Flash when creating interactive components on websites? Have you noticed a similar shift in technology trends? Let us know in the comments.