I am getting fed up with number of web sites using Flash, without really adding any value. Most of us don't have thousand dollar machines crammed with memory and the best CPU. What the average user gets is slow and just sucks the computer dry of available memory and CPU. Now add two or more and the poor user is left wondering whether (s)he should have bought a games machine.
The other issue I have with flash is that they are usually very difficult to navigate, it is impossible to bookmark a given point, and as a disservice to you they aren't going to get indexed correctly by Google, and other search engines. It is probably more work trying to create the same effects in HTML, or DHTML, but you end up with a product that is more accessible and hopefully easier to navigate. Should I also mention that I should be able to navigate a site with needing a plugin?
Another issue I have seen are HTML web sites with Flash intros, where the skip button is part of the Flash? How do I skip the intro, or even get to the main content if the link is not available in HTML!?
I realise that this probably a futile rant, but I just wish some people would just wake up and smell the coffee. Let me give you an old Pentium 4 with 256 Mb of memory and see how you feel.
For Firefox users who want to block Flash and only show on demand, there is FlashBlock
Here are some links to related web sites:
Last edited 27 July 2005