Top 5 Reasons you Shouldn't have a Flash Website
February 11th, 2011 by admin
Flash is a technology that has regrettably made its way into web design over time. There are certainly places where flash has proven to be useful such as videos and browser based games, but for some reason the trend became building an entire website out of flash because of the "interaction" and "movement" features that it offered. HTML5 is proving to be a strong contender to replace Flash entirely, but it will still take some time for the technology to be functional in modern browsers. Here are the top 5 reasons you should not have a Flash website and should consider either an HTML5 or HTML+Javascript alternative.
5. Mobile Users can't view it.
Despite the fact that the Adobe website says Flash is designed for "...high performance on mobile screens", the iPhone does not and will not support it. In fact, the iPhone Application Developer's Terms of Service forbids it.
4. Users without flash plugins can't view it.
Flash content isn't automatically viewable on all browsers like normal HTML content. Users must download and install the Flash Player Plugin, for the less tech savvy users of the world this can prove to be a real chore.
3. Search engines can't view it.
Everybody wants to be first on Google, this is extremely difficult to do with Flash. Search engines build their rankings by scanning or "crawling" the content of websites and using the words they read there as keyword search terms. Unfortunately, these search engine spiders cannot read the text that is within a Flash file.
2. You'll pay big to change it.
Pardon while I dust off my soap box, but the Internet was created as a way that anyone could post and share information freely. The core tool behind this notion is HTML which is the markup used to display web pages, and while this markup is defined by a set of standards, it can be learned used and written by anyone, using just about any software that can write text. Flash on the other hand, requires specific proprietary (substitute expensive here, if you wish) software to create and edit. These tools cost a lot of money, and you had better believe the developers will pass the cost on to you.
1. Its time is running out.
HTML5 is on the horizon. As the standard gains more compatibility with modern browsers there simply won't be a need to create websites out of flash since so many of the same features can be more easily accomplished.
Posted in: web tips