Adobe Flash has been in the news again of late, and, as usual, it isn't good news. Researchers discovered some fresh vulnerabilities in Flash, and these inherent flaws were serious enough to prompt Mozilla to block Flash by default for a period of time. Adobe has now updated Flash to eliminate the problem, but the calls to kill Flash off for good are growing louder by the day.

We want to know what you think about Adobe Flash, and, in particular, whether you think Flash needs to die. Welcome to this week's MakeUseOf Poll.

DuckDuckGoogleBing

To answer this week’s question please scroll down the page until you see the poll staring back at you. But first, we need to look at the results from last week, when we asked, “>Which Search Engine Do You Use?

Out of a total of 1,299 votes, 34% chose DuckDuckGo, 32.5% chose Google, 31.6% chose Bing, 0.4% chose Yahoo, 0.2% chose Wolfram Alpha, 0% chose Baidu, 0% chose Ask, 0% chose Yandex, 1.3% chose Other, and 0.1% chose I Never Use Search Engines.

So, DuckDuckGo won out, but only just, with just 32 votes separating DuckDuckGo, Google, and Bing. This result comes as something of a surprise, because Google is by far the most popular search engine amongst the general population.

However, it seems MakeUseOf readers play by their own set of rules, and a slight majority of them prefer the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo over the mainstream offerings from Google and Microsoft. Yahoo earned a measly five votes, which is another big surprise.

search-engine-poll-results

Comment of the Week

We received a lot of great comments, including those from Stephen Hazelwood, Rob Hindle, and Hildyblog. Comment Of The Week goes to Peter Fitzsimmons, who earns our admiration and affection for this comment:

I am almost fully immersed in the Google system, having a Nexus 6, Nexus 9 AND my new Chromebook. Using Google is easy and fuss free (for the most part).

I know Google has its haters and they are more than entitled to use what ever systems they chose, but for me Google does what I need and does it well.

Utilising things like Google Now on my phone or tablet is great and saves a lot of messing around, whereas on the Chromebook, I can use the same bookmarks as I do on the phones so that I get the same experience as I do on the tablet etc.

It’s far from perfect, but I do like the updates and “new” things that Google introduces to make life a bit easier. It doesn't always work, but when it does – it’s brilliant.

We chose this comment because it explains why some people use a particular operating system by default. If you use a number of Google products and services then it's a no-brainer to use Google's search engine. The same goes for people heavily ensconced in the Microsoft ecosystem, who will choose Bing over and above the competition.

A Flash of Inspiration

Adobe Flash, a proprietary multimedia platform for graphics, games, and videos, has split opinion for a long time. Those who like it think it still has a place on the Web, and argue that it's no worse than the alternatives. Those who hate it think it's an insecure resource hog that belongs to a bygone era.

Steve Jobs made the headlines in 2010 when he passionately argued against using Adobe Flash, and vowed it would never be welcome on Apple's mobile devices. Many others have echoed these sentiments since, and this past week saw Alex Stamos, Facebook’s new Chief Security Officer, calling for Flash to be killed off without mercy.

So, where do you stand on this issue? Does Adobe Flash need to die? Or does it still have a right to exist as long as people are using it? Please vote in the poll below, before scrolling down to the comments section to add some reasoning to your selection.

Once you have voted in the poll above, please explain in the comments section below why you voted that way. We want to know your true thoughts on Adobe Flash. Do you love it? Hate it? Have no particular feelings either way? Have you already uninstalled Flash? If so, what was the final straw?

The more information you can provide with your comment, the more accurate our conclusions can be based on the results. The best comment of the week will win our everlasting admiration and affection. At least until we all meet back here again this time next week with a new question.

Image Credits: Xathis via Flickr