Flash websites, or Text and Graphics?

[gerryonline]

Just been wondering, I have started to see less and less flash based websites around.

What do you think is happening the trend has gone, or are people finding that they prefer text based sites more?

[J_D]

I think there are a few things contributing to the lack of full flash websites.

I'd say that text would be easier for search optimisation etc... Also, there are alot more text based web developers than flash developers. Lastly, i'd say when you write a flash website, and want to integrate it with php and other scripts (for database management etc) you've still got to write a fair bit of other text code anyway...... although i've not that much of a knowledge when it comes to web development so it's just guesses at the moment.

JD

[jam]

SEO, thats would have to be the main reason, and flash does not integrate with the social networking/web 2.0 trends.

If something other then video is flash I will leave the site extremely quick.

[J_D]

Have you seen Microsoft has released Silverlite? Their answer to flash? Wonder how well this will take off?

JD

[Brendan]

I used to specialise in Flash websites and it was a great market to be in during the boom, however you only really see these sorts of sites for companies that rely on interactive animation, portfolios, games or movies.

For the run of the mill site, we occasionally get flash work, but it is usually just for smaller components, like animations, embedded movies, or small games.

It is very rare for us to have a request for a full flash site, and to tell you the truth we would talk a client out of it if it didn't suit their purpose.

Flash doesn't work well on mobile or other non computer devices, doesn't search well, and can be very resource hungry to servers, bandwidth etc..

There is still certainly a niche market for it but I think the trend has gone from where it was two years ago.

In regards to silverlight, a friend of mine is a silverlight developer, they swear by it.. I am still not convinced and personally think that MS have missed the boat, but it is certainly a 'watch this space' type technology.

[gerryonline]

great points guys, I guess it does make much more sense.

I wonder if flash will ever be search able? that may be a way to bring it back into the limelight.

has anyone got any silverlight sites I can have a look at?

[stabla]

I agree with Brendan, and for those reasons I too tend to steer clients away from flash...

As for silverlight, i haven't actually done anything with it, but it appears to be a good idea... the fact that the code is not compiled but represented as text means it will be more searchable than flash and will hopefully include some interesting features...

I think I will wait to see how moonlight (the open source version) turns out before i attempt any projects though...

[Brendan]

great points guys, I guess it does make much more sense.

I wonder if flash will ever be search able? that may be a way to bring it back into the limelight.

has anyone got any silverlight sites I can have a look at?

Hey Gerry,

Here are some silverlight sites,
Hard Rock Memorabilia
(http://memorabilia.hardrock.com/)
Savan Calçados (http://www.savan.com.br/apresentacao2/default.html)
Codex Sinaiticus
(http://www.e-manuscripts.org/)

Hope that gives you an idea

[Brendan]

Well I thought I would do some research as I knew there had to be a way to make Flash sites SEO friendly.. and found this article..

Accessible Flash Parts 1 And 2 [Flash Tutorials] (http://www.sitepoint.com/article/accessible-flash-parts-1-2)

Quite a good read and something I might give a bit of a try.