Comments on: Flash’s Weaknesses: Then and Now http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/ Adventures in web and graphic design Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:40:20 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: sandrar http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/comment-page-1/#comment-109075 sandrar Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:34:22 +0000 http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/#comment-109075 Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post... nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R. Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.

]]> By: Jonathan http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/comment-page-1/#comment-915 Jonathan Fri, 23 Feb 2007 22:55:08 +0000 http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/#comment-915 @Eddie: The Flash vs HTML debate is something I struggle with a lot. I worked for a number of years as a fulltime Flash designer/developer, and have a great love of Flash. But in the current climate Flash is clearly unfashionable, and I find it difficult to identify the real-world benefits of 100% Flash websites. I think it's telling that of the sites I visit on a regular basis (and there are many), not one of them is a Flash site, and I'm a Flash developer! As you suggest, many sites I build today are HTML with a sprinkling of Flash, which gives the best of both worlds. @Eddie: The Flash vs HTML debate is something I struggle with a lot. I worked for a number of years as a fulltime Flash designer/developer, and have a great love of Flash. But in the current climate Flash is clearly unfashionable, and I find it difficult to identify the real-world benefits of 100% Flash websites. I think it’s telling that of the sites I visit on a regular basis (and there are many), not one of them is a Flash site, and I’m a Flash developer! As you suggest, many sites I build today are HTML with a sprinkling of Flash, which gives the best of both worlds.

]]> By: Eddie Truman http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/comment-page-1/#comment-809 Eddie Truman Sat, 17 Feb 2007 06:38:35 +0000 http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/#comment-809 Ah, how this post took me back to a very specific moment in time when Macromedia (as it then was) and a fairly large contingent of web design people were convinced all web sites would be 100% Flash based in the very near future. The web was descending into overly designed, bloated and unindexable madness. Then CSS happened and we were saved ! I've never seen it written as such but the cast iron law of web design from that near miss with madness has to be; Only ever use Flash as but one small component of a web page... if you really have to. Ah, how this post took me back to a very specific moment in time when Macromedia (as it then was) and a fairly large contingent of web design people were convinced all web sites would be 100% Flash based in the very near future.
The web was descending into overly designed, bloated and unindexable madness.
Then CSS happened and we were saved !
I’ve never seen it written as such but the cast iron law of web design from that near miss with madness has to be;
Only ever use Flash as but one small component of a web page… if you really have to.

]]> By: Jonathan http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/comment-page-1/#comment-775 Jonathan Mon, 12 Feb 2007 23:13:00 +0000 http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/#comment-775 @Aaron: Good point, I should have mentioned the existence of the Flash Search Engine SDK. In my experience searches within Flash files are possible, but won't show up in a typical google search. If you add filetype:swf to your search term, then you will get just Flash results, but of course you would need to know that the content you are looking for is contained in a Flash movie. I think Google also has problems indexing content pulled dynamically into a Flash movie, such as from a database or XML file. I imagine there might also be issues with spidering Flash movies that are embedded using javascript, which of course has been a necessity ever since the Eolas patent challenge was upheld. So although the SDK is definitely a step in the right direction, I would evaluate it's real world impact as virtually nil, sadly. On the other hand, embedding html content inside of noscript tags, or sniffing search engines and presenting them with different content definitely works. @Aaron: Good point, I should have mentioned the existence of the Flash Search Engine SDK.

In my experience searches within Flash files are possible, but won’t show up in a typical google search. If you add filetype:swf to your search term, then you will get just Flash results, but of course you would need to know that the content you are looking for is contained in a Flash movie.

I think Google also has problems indexing content pulled dynamically into a Flash movie, such as from a database or XML file.

I imagine there might also be issues with spidering Flash movies that are embedded using javascript, which of course has been a necessity ever since the Eolas patent challenge was upheld.

So although the SDK is definitely a step in the right direction, I would evaluate it’s real world impact as virtually nil, sadly.

On the other hand, embedding html content inside of noscript tags, or sniffing search engines and presenting them with different content definitely works.

]]> By: Aaron Bassett http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/comment-page-1/#comment-770 Aaron Bassett Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:09:11 +0000 http://f6design.com/journal/2007/02/10/flashs-weaknesses-then-and-now/#comment-770 Good article but I have to disagree with your point on Search Engine Issues. Some search engines (google, perhaps others) can index text within a swf. There is an interview on search engine workshops which covers most of the details about it. - http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/flash.html I know its not perfect but at least it is a step in the right direction :) Good article but I have to disagree with your point on Search Engine Issues. Some search engines (google, perhaps others) can index text within a swf.

There is an interview on search engine workshops which covers most of the details about it.
– http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/flash.html

I know its not perfect but at least it is a step in the right direction :)

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