Yahoo is launching new interactive mobile display ads that have been created with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript technologies. Its inaugural ad, developed by Paramount and DreamWorks Animation, will be a campaign for the new Shrek movie, Shrek Forever After.

According to Yahoo's blog, its new format along advancements in smartphone technology and the next generation of HTML5 browsers means high-end mobile devices will be able to render its display ads in interactive rich media content. In the case of the Shrek campaign, when a consumer taps on its banner, it transforms into a image of Shrek wearing 3-D glasses with a call to action to view the film trailer.

RIP Flash?

HTML5, of course, is the standard Apple would like to see widely adopted in lieu of Flash. Is Yahoo’s new technology a sign that the market is moving towards Steve Job’s point of view? A new post from GoMoNews suggest such developments either way don’t matter.  It notes that mobile advertiser Greystripe has announced that since Apple announced its iAds advertising service, sales of its iFlash ads have gone up by 200%.

iFlash is basically a transcoder that runs Flash creatives through HTML5, getting around the Apple block. "People tend to find a way around things," GoMoNews says. "Flash and Android are almost certainly the two things that Apple wants most to keep away from its devices - and they’re both running on iPhones."