There was a time and a place for Flash and websites.  And while it has had a good run, unfortunately, Flash websites and video are just no longer very relevant in today’s existing web environment.  The reasons for the change are numerous—but more on that in a few minutes…

The good news is that there is a very viable and sensible replacement for Flash that’s pretty much in the final stages of going mainstream.  This technology is called HTML5 and is loaded with great new innovative features:

• It’s open to developers (free from the costly license fees).
• It’s easy on system resources like battery life and CPU demand.
• Great deal of flexibility when it comes to embedding video.
• New APIs like document editing and drag and drop functionality.
• The ability to use a much deeper list of fonts than traditional web development allows.
• And much, much more!

Even better is the fact that HTML5 has been endorsed by the big league players in the game, which should give it the boost and nurturing it needs to become a bonafide replacement for what Flash is now so commonly used for.  YouTube and Vimeo, two of the web’s most popular video streaming sites, are beta testing HTML5 right now, as they plan to replace their existing Flash-based videos with this new technology—it just doesn’t get much bigger than this.  Hopeful and encouraging news indeed!

So now let’s look back on the reasons why Flash is simply no longer an ideal solution.  Ready?

It’s expensive to work with. Specialized developers are required to work with a costly software environment to build Flash-based applications.  Enough said here.

It’s not mobile. The debate on the exact reasoning that Flash doesn’t work with the iPhone’s Safari web browser may not have been completely settled…but regardless of whether it’s Flash’s requirement for extensive processing power and battery life or it’s all about the licensing fees, one thing holds true—it still doesn’t work with the iPhone (or with the newly released iPad either).

It’s not SEO friendly. Even though Google does a better job now of understanding Flash-based websites than ever before, the bottom line is that sites that are entirely developed with this platform are still not SEO friendly at all.  HTML based sites are much more compatible with the search engines.

It’s not usability friendly. Flash sites cause all kinds of issues when it comes to usability.  Most of the time, simple copy and pasting is eliminated—which can really annoy savvy internet users.  Countless other display and compatibility problems can also stem from this form of web development.

It’s buggy. Because it works a little bit differently depending on the exact web browser, operating system, and hardware setup it’s being used on, the potential for a buggy situation is high.  It’s really difficult to determine if what looks and works great in the initial development environment will actually come across even remotely the same when a website visitor actually sees it on their device.

So, it’s time for the next wave of web multimedia technology to become a reality.  Hopefully HTML5 will take the reign as the new development standard!

You’ve probably run across several web designers who insist on using Flash to create websites.  Most have good intentions, but are just not fully aware of the pitfalls that come along with relying too heavily on Flash web design.  Others are probably just really bad web designers altogether.  Enough said about that.

But one thing is true.  Regardless of what you’ve heard, using Flash on the web has some really great applications and some that are, well, just not very good at all.

For example, a couple of good possible uses might include:

• Using Flash for video. Flash-based video has more or less become the iron-clad standard for streaming video on the web.  It works very well.
• Using Flash for image libraries or other “widgets” or “apps.” Flash works nicely as a sub-component in many photo sharing slash portfolio types of website applications.

That said, it’s still probably best to use Flash components on your website as sparingly as possible.  And it’s all for very good reason.  In fact, Google themselves has even laid forth the shortcomings of using Flash on websites.  They spell it out very concisely and clearly here on their Webmaster Central Blog:

As many of you already know, Flash is inherently a visual medium, and Googlebot doesn’t have eyes. Googlebot can typically read Flash files and extract the text and links in them, but the structure and context are missing. Moreover, textual contents are sometimes stored in Flash as graphics, and since Googlebot doesn’t currently have the algorithmic eyes needed to read these graphics, these important keywords can be missed entirely. All of this means that even if your Flash content is in our index, it might be missing some text, content, or links. Worse, while Googlebot can understand some Flash files, not all Internet spiders can.

Now when talking about ranking well in the search engines, it’s hard to argue that Google’s position on Flash isn’t pretty much definitive.  The more you use Flash as a component on a website, the less the search engines are even able to recognize it—let alone effectively rank it.  Search spiders are getting better at understanding Flash, but there are still severe repercussions that can be completely avoided in entirety by choosing to use a more universal web design platform.

In Summary

Even though many web designers insist on using Flash-based websites, it’s just not a good idea if you plan on attracting organic traffic from the search engines.

• Flash effectively prevents search engine spiders from recognizing and understanding your site correctly.
• Without being able to understand your website, the search engines are not able to rank or list it appropriately within their search indexes.
• Flash can also be non-compatible with certain web browsers and mobile browsers (meaning visitors using these browsers will see a blank space or error message instead of the site as intended).

Don’t become overly afraid of using a small Flash component or two on your site.  But just don’t fall into the trap of using it for the entire site…unless you’re trying to prevent visitors.