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Web
Design Articles
What is Flash, and
Should I Use It?
Flash is
a
multimedia
technology
that can
be used
to add
animation
or video
to a web
page.
Since
its
introduction
in 1996,
Flash
has
become
the
industry
standard
for
adding
such
content,
with
statistics
suggesting
that
almost
all
desktop
computers
in the
United
States
have a
version
of the
Flash
player
software
installed.
Popular
video
sites
such as
YouTube
use
Flash to
display
the
videos
to their
users.
In 1993,
FutureWave
Software
released
SmartSketch,
a
software
program
designed
for the
creation
of
computer
graphics.
In 1995,
they
modified
the
software
to add
frame
animation,
and
released
the
resulting
software
as
FutureSplash
Animator.
In 1996
the
company
was
taken
over by
Macromedia,
which
released
the
software
as
Macromedia
Flash
1.0.
Macromedia
continued
the
development
of the
software
until
2005,
when the
company
was
taken
over by
Adobe.
The
current
version
is Adobe
Flash
CS3,
released
in 2007
as part
of Adobe
Creative
Suite 3.
So,
that’s
the
background
– now
comes
the
tough
part of
the
question,
should
you add
Flash
content
to your
web
site. To
be
honest,
there
are
arguments
both for
and
against
this, so
let’s
see if I
can make
some
sense to
help you
come to
a
decision.
Firstly,
you must
admit
that a
well-executed
Flash
animation
does
look
good. It
can add
that
extra
touch to
a web
site,
and may
even
attract
visitors
who just
want to
see the
Flash
animation.
However,
that may
not be
the type
of
visitor
you are
trying
to
attract.
Using
Flash on
your web
site
will eat
up a lot
more
bandwidth
than if
the site
did not
have
Flash,
especially
if those
extra
visitors
come
just to
see the
Flash.
If you
are on a
restrictive
web
hosting
plan,
then you
may want
to
consider
whether
you will
need to
upgrade
your
plan in
order to
use
Flash.
As
mentioned
above,
Flash
will use
more
bandwidth.
This
will
also
make for
longer
loading
times
for your
web
pages,
especially
for
those
people
who are
still
using a
dial-up
connection.
With
time, as
broadband
reaches
more and
more of
your
intended
market,
this
problem
will be
less of
a
factor.
Surveys
from
July
2007
show
that
over
one-half
of all
U.S.
households
have
broadband
access
already,
and by
2012
close to
three-quarters
will
have
some
form of
broadband
access.
Finally,
and this
point
may
matter
more to
you than
all of
the
others,
as
things
stand
right
now
search
engines
do not
index
Flash-based
pages
well at
all.
There is
no HTML
code, or
only a
minimal
amount
of code,
for the
spiders
used by
search
engines
to
access.
This
could
mean
that
your
site
fails to
rise to
prominence
in the
search
engine
rankings.
I did
say as
things
stand
right
now, as
there
are some
recent
developments
in the
field
that may
change
the way
that
search
engine
spiders
index
Flash-based
web
pages in
the
future.
My view?
If your
site is
aimed
towards
modern
technology
or
computers,
or will
have a
lot of
multimedia
content,
then
it’s
something
worth
having,
especially
if by
using
Flash
you can
showcase
your
capabilities.
If not,
then
consider
if you
really
need to
use the
technology.
Oh, and
if you
do use
Flash,
please
remember
to give
the user
the
option
of
bypassing
it –
some
people
do find
Flash
annoying
and
intrusive. |
