Google Labs released Swiffy last week, their attempt to allow people to easily convert .swfs to HTML5.   However, instead of being a revolutionary technology, rather, it shows just how far HTML5 needs to go before it can match Flash.

Swiffy attempts to open a .swf and convert the content to SVG.  I was going to post some demos of content that it converted, but EVERY .swf I tried (from very simple to very complex) did not convert correctly. Almost all ActionScript was unsupported.  All audio was unsupported.  In fact, the only things I could get to work were timeline animations and click throughs.  Even those were spotty.

Sure, I know, this is Google Labs and yes it is beta, and yes, it is only a test, but the limited nature of the support suggests one or more of the following three things:

• People who desperately want to rid the world of Flash, and who build converters like this, don’t really know what Flash is used for.
• HTML5 is just not up to the task.
• There are no easy answers when trying to replace Flash

I encourage you to try it for yourself.