Flash is a powerful web technology that achieves a high level of visual impact from the graphical point of view. Unfortunately, it is widely misused in web design. There are still many problems with Flash, especially related to usability and search engine behaviour; we need to thoroughly understand what those problems are before we decide to use Flash for our site. If you are planning on putting up a Flash website, you should know both the positive aspects of Flash as well as the drawbacks. This, combined with your knowledge of your customers, should help you to decide if creating a site in Flash or using Flash for certain elements of your site is a good idea. Current Status Flash is gaining in popularity both with Web designers and with the public. There are some things on the Web that can only be done effectively with Flash, and some site owners feel that Flash is a very important part of their Web design. Learning to write Flash Web pages can be tricky, but there are lots of resources, both online and in books and offline classes. But using Flash just because can be risky too, as some customers are immediately put off by a Flash website and while search engines have better support for Flash than they used to, it still can be very difficult to get an all-Flash website to rank high in search engines. What's At Stake? Using or not using Flash on a website can cause major problems for the site. If you are building a website that Flash is well-suited for, then not using Flash could drive away readers. But building a site in Flash simply because you can can affect how your customers interact with your site, whether they find the site in search engines, and how accessible and usable your site is. Flash is a powerful tool, but like every tool in the Web developer's toolbox, it shouldn't be used to solve every situation. Some problems are best solved with Flash, and others are not. If you know how to use Flash effectively, you can increase your page views and customers. http://www.websolutioncentre.com
I aggree with tihs. Flash can look amazing, but can also look terible if done wrong. It is also not very SE friendly
Yeah...Flash is only impressive nowadays if you are really good at it, otherwise you run the risk of looking cheezy very easily. Not to mention javascript libraries make HTML animations easier than ever before, and you dont suffer the SEO problems that you would with flas
The major downside is that Flash is not SEO friendly, so if you care about ranking then a full flash site should be avoided. Flash can look good if done well, but for me personally a little goes a long way.
Well, it is a very good tread no doubt, it is very helpful for the beginners of the flash, that how much they should embed flash in the website so that not only it should facilitate the visitors but also it can't create a problem for the crawler of the search engine because the crawler of the mostly search engine can't crawl the flash videos so be careful while utilizing the flash in the content of the website...
I have been a professional Flash developer since Flash 4... this is my opinion: I don't use Flash to build ANYTHING I want to SEO. I make functional applications with Flash and will make sure the entire site is not built around it. When building a Flash application it is EASY, if you're not careful, to create a resource-hogging application that will chug computers and eat up RAM. If you are going to learn Flash, learn how to program so that you can avoid those issues. It's the #1 reason that companies like Apple don't want to support Flash in their products... irresponsible programmers creating crash-happy Flash applications. As a designer, it's nice to know that I'm creating an application that can be seen the same way on Windows, Macs, and all browsers. Realistically, Flash is best for games and simple web-based applications. For instance, I created a video caption creator that can be used on the web... it flows nicely for the user and makes for a better experience than doing it in another web language. My advice, if you want to make a web application, pick up an AS3 book and Flex. If you want to make games, ads, or just graphics that make people say "ooo" and "ahhh" - then grab Flash and an AS3 book. Never rely on Flash to build an entire site. Use it to enhance a site.
Biggest loophole of Flash websites. *CLAPS* for you friend. Flash is beautifull but specific website like movie's official sites, personal portfolio who don't care about SEO and have specific purpose. Normally HTML,CSS is perfect.
Flash definitely helps to enhance user experience but as long as we do not use it excessively, it's fine from SEO point of view.
I'll put my money on HTML 5, as it seems like a more SEO friendly solution, and the graphic possibilities are just growing up. It works faster and no plug-ins are needed.
Flash can look good, but like many have said, its not the best for SEO. Also, loading time can be a pain on some sites- theres a popular retail store that I shop in, but hate their flash site- takes ages to load the silly animation of their clothes when all I want to do is check prices etc. As a result I refrain from going on their site- if it was HTML based I'd use it so much more!
i think flash sites are for another website category, only presentation. Flash sites cannot generate traffic
My firefox browser has a plugin automatically disables flash. so be advised that not everyone accepts flash on there browser
In light of the recent news (Apple not letting Flash on IPads), it's hard to say where the market will turn going forward. One thing that is overlooked when comparing HTML5 and Flash is that you have pretty much no code security with HTML5, whereas Flash or Silverlight are distributed in the binary form. Yes you can disassemble it, though it's not trivial on large apps and solutions exist to make it very difficult..
Flash in not only a plug-in. It is also a great tool to create Flash clips. So to do same thing in HTML5 without WISIWIG editor would be impossible for most designers.