Poor old Flash … while some people love it, it has to deal with all sorts of abuse from high profile internet personalities like Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen wrote (a while ago now, in 2000) that Flash as 99% bad. Today we are evaluating the truth of that statement in an internet marketing context – better put your money where your mouth is, Flash defamers!
-Nnnn- Flash is bad -nnn- does not compute
What’s the problem?
Before we can start extolling the virtues of Flash, we probably should run through why Nielsen famously said that it was 99% bad. Bear in mind that Nielsen is a web usability expert, and most of his statements are made from that position. His arguments against the use of Flash in websites were:
- The use of Flash in ‘forced’ intros
- The Back button doesn’t work, neither do link colours or the text zoom
- Just because we can animate something, doesn’t mean we should – Flash is distracting
- It is superficial – no concrete value
Another common complaint about Flash is that it hurts SEO efforts, as any text within Flash isn’t indexed by the search engines, and is therefore ‘wasted’ from an SEO perspective.
The Skip Intro button
This is not only available on the majority of sites with Flash intros, it is now also available as a page opening option from Google results. On sites that do force intros, users typically complain so much that they are taken down – forced Flash intros are certainly not regarded as best practice in web design nowadays. Problem solved.
Logistics
Yes, not having a back button, links that change colour when they’ve been visited, or text zoom is bad. But if you don’t make an entire website in Flash (not usually recommended anyway), this won’t be a problem.
Distraction
Yes, Flash is distracting, in the same way that animated banner advertisements are. Just use it for emphasis and attention, and don’t overdo it.
Flash …used on top ranking sites
There are hundreds of high profile, highly trafficked sites on the net that use Flash. They may use it for illustration rather than explanation and have it not as a core part of the site. Or, it may have concrete value - the Barbie site with Flash games is one that comes to mind.
Flash and SEO
Lastly, without getting into the technical details, it is now actually possible to have Flash that is indexed by the search engines.
There are certainly some valid complaints about Flash … but don’t listen to that big meanie that says it is 99% bad!