Out there in the WWW there are thousands
of sites using flash for their needs. But the majority sites are
not in this list. Let's summaries some facts about flash using on YOUR
web site and after that it's you who will have to decide: to use or
not to use. There are some facts about Macromedia Flash Technology:
The First Flash Fact:
Sites are look much prettier and professional with
the flash animation on their pages. Users sometimes visit sites only
to see flash intros if it's done in some original manner.
The Second Flash Fact:
Flash Source Scripts cannot be stolen unlike Java
Scripts or HTML code. Flash files come in "two" pieces: files
with .fla extension are the actual source and .swf files are compiled
version of these files. In browsers you can see only .swf files.
The Third Flash Fact:
Flash animation files are slow to download and require
flash player plug-in . Regular static graphic requires less time to
download. In a couple of years when the problem of dial-up connection
may be solved and fast DSL lines will be cheap and available for anyone
this problem may seem not so serious, but so far we must consider this
aspect, as not all users are eager to wait for a minute or two to see
your flash intro. That's one of the main reason flash is not popular
on the big corporate sites (but Yahoo for example displays flash advertisements
on their pages)
The Fourth Flash Fact:
Not all browser compatible with flash players. The
old versions of MS Explorer and Netscape Navigator cannot display flash
movies. There is a solution however: to use Java Script to check the
compatibility of browser and display the static image if the player
is not available for that browser. Well there is some issuer still left
with browsers who cannot understand Java Scripts but there are few people
who use those browsers today…but there are some…and you
must keep that in mind.
The Fifth Flash Fact:
As you may notice we used on our web page http://www.metamorphozis.com
flash header. Why? The reason was simple and that is the fact number
five: flash movies are cashed in special browser folder and second time
you access it you don't need to wait. Flash movie will be displayed
from the cache folder. Image files are also stored in browsercache and
may be reused if you keep the file names and path to images the same.
But we selected flash due to several technical reasons related to our
needs. So we did it to reduce our page loading time. See how contradictorily
it sounds with the third fact?:-) The problem is that it requires a
lot of time to download but only for the first time! If you could make
visitors wait that time then you will benefit from having flash header
as it always there and does not need to be loaded each time you go to
the other page.
The Sixth Flash Fact:
Search engines do not like flash pages[ as of this
writing], as it makes almost impossible to crawl them. They can not
crawl links on your web page and can not index your website content
if it is in flash. In html you can insert flash only as object.
As you may see flash has number of advantages and
disadvantages. No matter what you think about flash but it is the future
of the Internet. If you cannot admit this and stay away tomorrow you
will regret you did it. Just consider the flash usage on your web site.
Remember! Be reasonable in design and flash usage and you'll be o.k.
About The Author
Oleg Lazarenko
Metamorphosis Web Design Studio
Production Manager
http://www.metamorphozis.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
