As if 2020 hasn’t been a rough year already, a number of services will be ending on or near December 31, 2020. Here’s a breakdown for you:

It’s been 24 years since Macromedia first introduced Adobe Flash Player. That’s a very long run for any single piece of software but its time has come to an end. In the early era of personal computing, AFP was used all over the Internet. Even YouTube videos were originally posted in Flash. Games were a major stronghold for the player, especially on sites like Pogo. Pogo gamers were disappointed late last year when they received emails informing them that certain games were being discontinued because there would be no more Adobe Flash.

The fact is that you could do some amazing things with Flash. Unfortunately, so could hackers. As the Internet continued to grow and black hats (those are hackers who use their skills for evil purposes, primarily) got better and faster with their craft, Flash Player became the software to avoid as it was often used to infect computing devices.

HTML5 has become the go-to replacement for Flash as it’s much easier to protect and keep save. After December 31, 2020, there will be no more support for Flash and it should be removed from your computing devices. In case you’re wondering, there is nothing for you to download for the HTML5. Any modern browser will show HTML5 content without you having to do anything.

Another product ending on December 31, 2020 is Google Cloud Print. “What the heck is that?” I hear you ask. And now you probably know why it’s disappearing. Virtually no one knew about this service, let alone used it.

Here’s how the service worked: you could make your home or office printer a Google Cloud Printer. Once you did that, you could be anywhere in the world and send a document or picture to one of your Cloud Printers. Someone at your home or office could then retrieve the printed matter and do whatever with it. Or, it could just sit in the printer until you got back.

If you did use Google Cloud Print, there are some alternatives. A few printer manufacturers offer cloud printing by creating an email address for the printer. You can then email your data to that address and the printer will print it. Another option is the alternative that Google recommends: PaperCut Mobility Print. (Click to visit the site.)

Google Hangouts was originally part of Google’s attempt at a Social Media platform – Google+. It’s one Google product that never hit it big like Search or Maps or Gmail. Eventually, in 2017 Google+ began the shut-down process. Google Hangouts, however, remained.

Now, near the end of 2020 or the early weeks of 2021, Google Hangouts will be gone. In it’s place, Google Meet and Google Chat have taken up the slack. Currently, Google Chat is only for business accounts but you can look for that to change in the early part of 2021 when it is opened to non-business accounts.

Yes, it’s true. Our Question of the Week email is coming to an end the last week of December. This email service of ours has been around for more than 15 years and it’s time to retire it. Why? Several reasons: 1) this blog – I’m posting 6 times a week and giving readers way more information than I was ever able to give in the QOTW (when you sign up for the blog email, you receive two emails a week – each containing links to three posts); 2) I have veered more toward video when it comes to major “How To” tutorials; 3) Honestly? Readers interact way more with this blog than the Question of the Week email; 4) Information that you found in that email, such as dates for upcoming seminars or webinars, can be found right here in the blog or on Social Media.

Beginning with the next QOTW email, I’ll suggest to readers that they sign up for this blog. Those who have an interest in learning more about computing and computing devices will probably make the transition. Those who barely open the QOTW probably won’t. As always, please share our blog with those in your family or your circle of friends who you think would benefit from my posts.