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Adobe Flash (previously Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a propitiatory set of technologies which allows media playback (such as sound, video, and interactivity) on web devices.

Developers are able to create interactivity using ActionScript, a scripting language similar to Javascript which can be used to create Flash games and internet applications, among other things.

Being propitiatory, the development software isn't free (and is sold as part of Adobe Creative Suite), but free third party applications exist, one such web application being Ajax Animator.

Flash has its criticisms for the player being closed source and so not being available for every device or operating system, which means that you cannot guarantee that every web browser will be able to play back the Flash media.

YouTube and iPlayer both make use of Adobe flash for its video playback (and in the case of iPlayer, for its DRM functions).