Late night tech discussion: Is flash the future of the net?
 

Because of certain limitations, particularly SEO, flash hasn't become the future, imo.

Web visitors just want to access content, and really don't care about design too much. however --- there is still a degree in which the presentation of the content is a factor.

The amount of superiority flash has over html sites to deliver content in such a creative interactive way, in and of itself would mean a web comprised of all flash sites. But since there are other factors (verrrry few designers who can do truely good flash design, SEO, a small margin of those without flash, and other variables) - this has not become the case.

but I believe if those conditions were ruled out over time, which I believe they will, you will begin to see more and more sites structuring layouts in an interactive, more motion styled presentation (as flash allows one to do)

hard to say. in the end people want information and they want it fast.

personally i hate flash sites. they are bloated and take forever to find what you want. i find alot of corporate sites start out flash, end up firing their web design team and going back to a more traditional and simple format.

yes, for now I'd say it's too early if you own a business and your site is entirely flash.

but there are a few flash sites out there that aren't annoying like the 99% of the others out there, and actually increases the experience.

until you can figure out a way for a SE spider to read flash, I wouldn't count on it

can you hit me up on ICQ

Good Lord, I hope not.

who was that addressed to?

I agree! I'm tired of the all fucking flash site, I hate it :feels-hot

I believe this is an issue people are actively trying to solve. haven't done much research though.

I think Flash can be used well for navigation menus and things like that, but not so much for content (definitely not for text).

exactly, because of SEO. but if SEO weren't a problem (and neither were the other factors), I can see the big sites shifting to an all flash design.

There are ways.

I'm on if that was addressed to me.

Google is going to Index Flash, they presented at the last webmasterworld show. Also Macromedia is doing a lot of work in this area. We are doing a lot of work on Flash Video as thats an area that is going to blow up soon.

Jay
[email protected]

knew it :)

Q: Is Flash the future of the net?

A: I say, 'no'.

I've recently been doing a lot of work utlising W3C standards, and have been reading extensively on the virtures of why they are a good idea in the first place.

When you're designing websites with usability in mind, it is very difficult to include flash elements without compromising your aims.

The core of the web will remain with the W3C. Flash may even become extinct in the future, and replaced by SVG (W3C standard, Scaleable Vector Graphics).

One theory is that because SVG is such a bad-ass idea (XML based!) Macromedia will be forced into adopting it; they'll then use their authoring tools (ie Freehand, FlashMX etc) to produce SVG files.

:2 cents:

Actually, SEO is possible in Flash; same for bookmarkable pages etc...

Another thing to note is that full-flash sites are not necessarily as bad as you think.... have you seen the new Road Runner site? (http://www.rr.com/flash/index.cfm) It was designed by Fantasy Interactive (http://www.fantasy-interactive.com) whom also has a full flash site... it can be accomplished if done right...

anyhow i know i am a week late with this response, just thought i'd share :)

cool, but you aren't a week late, more like a month late.. lol.

yeah, the road runner site is really amazing.

I think that flash ain't suitable for all sorts of sites, I mean fancy eye-candy is far from beeing a requirement for many markets...

Very interestin movies on there site....care to take a guess at what roadrunner's site cost to build?

I got a quote from a mainstream design house www.wddg.com around $250k for what I wanted and it was nothing compared to the roadrunner site. I bet it cost over 1 million.

double post sorry

Flash will become the standard as pro companies distance them selfs from the amateurs and hope to capture more of the market

I've been working 15 hours a day learning and converting all my sites and client's sites to be W3C compliant. Makes me sleep better at night.
:winkwink:

wddg and fantasy-interactive (among many other mainstream design haus') are out of many people's budgets... but the people that work at those kind of large companies (i am one of those people) often do freelance work at the same quality (obviously if they work for the large interactive agencies) but far more reasonable prices...

it's not like the actual programmers/designers are getting that big of a cut from the 250k :)

I agree flash is very annoying

i disagree... it CAN be quite annoying when used unprofessionally..same goes for animated images and banners in general... flash itself has alot of solid potential behind it if used correctly...

it is often worth pondering where the web is going or will go in 3-5 years+, I think more interactive will be the norm.. flash video is pretty impressive and as people get faster connections I think we'll see more of this over the coming years.. I dont know whether flash will 'take over' or if something else will.. also, as someone mentioned good flash designs can't be pumped out by just anyone; it's a whole creative field in itself

I wonder what web design professionals here think and if any of them are bothering to learn flash at all ?

flash is great for advertising because of the amount you can pack into a small space.. plus it looks nice.

for a website.. fuck no

Sexdwarf,

In your opinion what was the cost of the Road Runner site and what would it take to recreate something like that today? How long etc. Are you capable of something of that scale via freelance? Hit me up either way I would love to chat.

In the end, everyone wins. You will see the best sites coded in php rendering CSS with jpeg headers, gif macros, and flash menus, which will account for less than 5% of the design.

If everyone (surfers too) had 512k DSL, sure, it would be fine. But flash is in primitive stages. Not only is it very slow, but it's very unresponsive. But you asked about "The Future"- Well no one knows the future. But yes, Flash has potential. It also has potential to be annoying, believe it or not.

Right now, php and CSS is going the distance and I'd put my money on it being the future. Will it surpass Flash technology? Not even the same ballgame.

Ultimately, for graphical applications, what it comes down to is dithering the animated gif. Because you can train the animated gif. But it has a serious issue with quality.

Then there's security.
We're referring to swf as "Flack". A conjunction of the words Flash and Hack, it's that unsecure.

I'll agree with that. But I'll raise you one: Interactive Media

The music biz, the movie biz, digital artists and fans sites (don't forget the majority here) will harness the power of Flash.

LOOK AT THIS SITE: www.bandtime.tv

They could not do what they are doing WITHOUT flash. And I must say, that is one baddass fucking site and it loads FAST. (I keep it open in a seperate tab while I surf)

What're you talking about it's very slow??? Yeah, it's very slow if a moron flash designer created it, otherwise the file sizes can be identical with the same design in php/html...If the designer knows what he/she is doing, the rest of the animation (the purpose of putting it in flash) won't even be barely noticable when comparing to a standard html design.

www.roadrunner.com is a prime example of a very effective full scaled flash design. it's very apparent that in this version, they were able to accomplish a lot that wouldn't otherwise be capable in a standard design.

Ok, you're right. Flash is Fast.

Flash sucks.

The End.

the future of media is motion. deal with it or become yet another cranky old fucker who says 'in my day...'. Move with the times or the times will leave you behind. Yes, many flash sites today either suck or are annoying. Some however are fucking brilliant. Flash elements, used well, can bring a LOT to a site. But, just like bad html is bad flash. When its really bad, it becomes good(or at the very least mockable).

/just sayin'

this galleryseek guy is very aggresive

my guess (with various other professionals in this field) is that their site came out to 100k to 250k... why wddg would quote you 250k is beyond me; they are an amazing design haus but nothing compared to say 2Advanced and Fantasy-Interactive (No offense to James intended in the odd event he comes accross this message)...

depending on your needs a site like that from a freelance level would run from 25k to 50k, depending on the exact functionality... obviously with a spec it can change drastically; but it's not as far reached as an agencies price... but hey; they have tons of overhead that a freelancer (or freelance group) don't have...

i guess i'll install ICQ and give you a buzz; seems everyone on here uses ICQ :) now to see if i remember my ICQ number from 8 years ago