6 Reasons We Don’t Like Flash

Flash is a great website tool. It enables unparalleled interactivity, protects source code, and it is especially well suited for animation and media. However, we aren’t sold. We do grudgingly use it for some projects, but we don’t like it. Here are six reasons why we opt for alternatives.

6. Not accessible.

Web surfers today use a variety of devices to access the internet. The trusty computer has now been replaced by smart phones and PDAs, which enable easy browsing on-the-go. So if you want to appeal to these new age visitors, flash won’t work; these devices don’t support it.. So by using flash, you will be alienating a portion of your audience. (The other alternative would be to have an HTML version of you website.)

5. Increased maintenance time.

Flash also requires more work to maintain. Even if the flash element runs using external content such as XML, text files, or a database, you will need to update the layout, fonts, and graphics from time to time. This will require almost twice as much effort as would be needed for an HTML/CSS website..

4. Proprietary software.

To develop a flash element, you will need to use Adobe’s proprietary Flash software. Granted, there are a few alternatives, but to achieve all of Flash’s possibilities, you need to use the official software. So for a web developer, this necessitates the initial cost of purchasing the software, and the ongoing costs required to upgrade to the latest versions.

3. Inconsistent browser support.

We’ve all had the Internet Explorer woes. Embedding flash isn’t as simple as adding HTML tags to a web document. Instead, you also need Javascript to help aid certain browsers in loading it. Additionally, there are all sorts of other quirks that you’ll notice when integrating embedded Flash elements into your webpage. We won’t get into that here, but see our article Safari and Flash Don’t Play Well Together for an example.

2. Bulky file sizes.

All of us have come across those websites that take an eternity to load. Unfortunately, this is common with flash websites. Of course, there are a lot of ways to reduce load time, but you will find that just about all flash websites load more slowly than do their HTML/CSS counterparts.

1. Not search engine friendly.

FLASH IS NOT SEARCH ENGINE FRIENDLY. This means that most content that you’ve included in flash files will not be indexed by search engines. And while some search engines, namely Google and Yahoo, are capable of reading content that is in flash files, they are still limited in what they can retrieve. For example, they are not capable of crawling links or indexing dynamic or XML-driven flash content.

… Sometimes we use Flash

Flash does have its uses. For example, it is especially good for streaming audio, or for creating interactive elements with very little development time. And while we have implemented some beautiful effects using javascript libraries such as JQuery and Prototype, flash is a preferred method for many tasks. Some things that flash does well include: compressing Images, creating animated banners, and protecting source code and images.

Yes, we are definitely not advising people against using Flash, but we believe that it is important to know the limitations of flash elements and websites before creating them.