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You probably hate Flash ads. They pop up in front of your webpages. They slow down your browser. And they have been exploited by hackers again and again.

The giants of the Internet now seem finally to be taking a stand against this much despised technology. As of today, Google will now pause flash ads in its Chrome browser; meanwhile, Amazon has banned them altogether across its network of sites. Earlier this summer, Facebook’s chief security officer Alex Stamos called for the death of Flash, too. And let’s not forget that Apple’s iPhone and iPad have always been free of Flash, which Steve Jobs famously reviled.

For users, the anti-Flash movement may seem like a time for rejoicing. But the curbing of this annoyance could have its own unpleasant repercussions for consumers of ad-supported content on the web. Wtih Google putting the brakes on Flash in Chrome—the world’s most popular web browser—advertisers will need to seek other ways to get their messages out. Suddenly, some of the money once flowing to Flash ads—and the publishers who run them—might start flowing to Chrome-friendlier platforms, such as, say, Google’s AdWords.

“If an advertiser’s two methods for advertising are Flash banners and AdWords text ads, and Google does something to prevent Flash from working well, then it works out well for Google,” says Ben Edelman, a professor at Harvard Business School who specializes in Internet advertising.

Edelman worries that if Flash-starved advertisers do opt to advertise more with Google, Facebook, or other tech biggies, they may choose to advertise less with publishers who are dependent on ad money to stay afloat. And that could ultimately mean fewer choices for readers.

To be clear, the end of Flash wouldn’t also mean the end of annoying video popups and animated ads for good. On Chrome, for instance, Flash ads converted to HTML5 will work just fine. Still, many of the agencies that make digital ads have built their businesses around developing for Flash. And while they may have known the likely sunsetting of Flash would one day come, it doesn’t mean they’re entirely prepared.

“Some of the challenges that remain are adoption and learning what it means for creative shops to go from a Flash world to an HTML one,” says Scott Cunningham, the senior vice president of technology and ad operations at the Interactive Advertising Bureau. “But they’re going to move as quickly as they can.”

The upside, Cunningham says, is that HTML5 is supported across all devices, so it will mean that agencies won’t have to recreate new ad products for mobile and desktop, but rather have a single workflow. As it stands now, many ads built for desktop are not seen in their dynamic form on mobile.

That fragmentation has already started to force changes.

“Within the advertising industry, the mobile ad segment is more surprised to see that Flash still exists than it is to see Amazon ban it,” says Jeffrey Peden, the chief executive of mobile ad agency CraveLabs. “Flash and mobile never worked well together and marketing teams quickly evolved to support that reality.”

Even so, the adjustment period necessitated by a post-Flash world on all platforms could mean a redirection of ad dollars straight to the big companies hastening its demise. It’s nice to think that the biggest tech companies in the world are just trying to improve users’ experiences out of a desire to create a less annoying world. But if tech giants are no longer supporting Flash ads, advertisers may start to send more of their dollars straight into those giants’ pockets, at least during the inevitable lag as the shift to HTML5 lumbers along.

So, goodbye Flash, and good riddance. But, in the meantime, publishers, already faced with worries over diminishing revenue due to ad blockers, may feel the brunt of the decisions made by Google and Amazon. Because Flash or not, the Internet still runs on ads.