Legacy Plugins: Replace object, embed and applet
For years, websites used browser plugins for video, games, animations and interactive tools: Adobe Flash, Java applets, Silverlight. Browsers removed support for all of them; Flash reached its end of life in December 2020. Pages that still embed plugin content show visitors an empty box or a “plugin not supported” message, and search engines see nothing there either.
Why it matters
- Visitors see missing content, often right where the most important element used to be.
- Search engines can’t read text or links inside plugin files.
- Security: old plugin embeds sometimes point to files on servers nobody maintains anymore.
What we check
We look for <object>, <embed> and <applet> elements in the page’s HTML.
| Result | When |
|---|---|
| Passed | none are present |
| Needs attention | at least one is present |
The report lists up to five of them with their type or source. Note that <object> and <embed>
are sometimes used for things that still work, such as an embedded PDF or SVG. If that’s the case
on your page, the result is a nudge rather than a bug, but the modern alternatives below are usually
better anyway.
What to use instead
| Old embed | Replacement |
|---|---|
| Flash video player | <video> with an MP4 or WebM source, or an embedded YouTube/Vimeo <iframe> |
| Flash animation or banner | CSS animation, an animated WebP or a short <video> |
| Flash game or tool | a JavaScript/HTML5 version, or remove it |
| Java applet | a JavaScript implementation, or link to a download |
PDF in <object>/<embed> |
a plain link to the PDF, or an <iframe> with a link as fallback |
SVG in <object> |
<img src="file.svg">, or inline <svg> if you need to style it |
For video, a minimal accessible version:
<video controls preload="metadata" poster="/video/intro.jpg">
<source src="/video/intro.webm" type="video/webm" />
<source src="/video/intro.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<a href="/video/intro.mp4">Download the video</a>
</video>
If the old content matters
If the plugin content was valuable, such as an old educational animation, check whether an emulator like Ruffle can run it, or record it as a video. Otherwise, remove the embed and the files it points to.
Further reading: MDN: The video element.