Google today announced setting in the Flash Player plug-in along with Chrome for Windows, including Windows XP inside a new and enhanced sandbox. The company states that this plug-in will be strong and robust. Along with security, it is also believed that this will further lessen chrome crashes by about 20 percent. Earlier, the Flash plug-in on Chrome for Windows used the older Netscape Plug-in Application Programming Interface (NPAPI). And now the company has switched to Google’s own Pepper Plug-in API (PPAPI). Working on it for around two years, Google and Adobe have worked in collaboration to offer users enhanced protection. Justin Schuh, software engineer, Google says that the earlier advantages of NPAPI had started to create problems as the web evolved. He also believes that NPAPI had to go as it was preventing the team from extending improvements to pages with plug-in content. Schuh also emphasizes the fact that this change was necessary as it was the only way to use all features of Flash in Windows 8 Metro/Windows 8-Style UI mode. This update also offers users with a chance to enjoy new hardware accelerated Flash features that weren’t earlier feasible with the NPAPI plug-in. As of now, the PPAPI Flash port is only available on Chrome OS, Windows and Linux. Mac users need not be disappointed as Chrome for Mac is on its way with all these improved security and stability features.
