Flash Sites: Yes or No?

Flash Web Sites: Yes or No?

I can have always appreciated beautiful art, be it a painting, photograph, a great song, or an amazing playwright, but I’m also mezmerorized by the technical aspects of them all. Flash sites are the perfect candidate for such a topic, being that I do call myself a web developer. So what is my problem with Flash sites? In the following we will look at the pro’s and con’s together.

First, the pro’s. YES, most Flash sites look amazing, even though some of them look worse than web standards, but the stereotype is that almost all Flash websites look amazing. This is one of the main reasons why so many people want one. They can also have cool actions like visual effects and audio. Great, but what about the technical aspects?

This is where the con’s come into play. When deciding how to build a website, take these things into consideration about a Flash site:

1)Search engines have no idea what the site will contain since search engines only understand text. Trying to have a crawler go through a Flash site is like trying to learn all the languages in India. What exactly does this mean? Well, if you are a local business trying to get on the top of page rankings or are simply worried of SEO, well guess what, the best way to get all your worries slapped in your face is by having a Flash site. So in other words, if you are a business, stay away.

2)Flash sites require a program on the computer-Adobe, which means you’re already bitting your tail by making the viewers download another program. Normally, if these people search for a lot of sites, then chances are they will need Adobe anyway, but if you take the stats of these people, most of them look for games, which is different than an informative web page. This we will look at later. This means that if they don’t have Adobe, they can’t view your hard work. Again, if you are a business, stay away.

3)Since crawlers wouldn’t be able to crawl properly there are many things you won’t have at your disposal. Crawlers are little spider-like creators on the web that are used primarily to get information from sites. Not to say that they can’t produce any viruses, but chances are that these spiders are crawling for only information about the website and how many visitors. If a crawler can’t get this information due to a Flash site, then if you are a small business who is “financial aware” (who wants to save money on SEO), then you won’t know who is visiting, and all the rest of the stats. Again, if you are a local business, stay away.

Are Flash sites good for anything then? Well, let me start by saying this, technology is constantly evolving, making things fancier and in some cases better, but not all the time. Functionality is great to have with the developments, but for 90% of computer owners, they just want to use their computer and have it work. They don’t really want “Updates” and “Upgrades”. As technology evolves, especially in web design, it could help lots for the entertainment industry. For example, let’s say you have a band and you want to make a nice web page, here I completely understand using Flash to get it done, but absolutely not when it comes to a business site. What about the games as before mentioned? Lots of us get bored during work and need a break so we either pop onto Facebook or any flash games sites. Since usually we need to buy the software for games and if we just need a few minutes to ourselves, we choose not to due this, so flash designers create games and publish them to the public. For this, even I am greatly thankful, but it’s not like they are trying to market someone’s company through these games are build a site. It’s small games made to help us keep our sanity during the day.

Disclaimer: I will admit that I don’t know how to create a web site in Flash, but I am not jealous at all of those who can. I am a proud web developer that uses the web standards.

Computerfox Design

Summer 2011

Hello All, I felt the need to write an update for this year so far.

New Years Eve:

Not much happened. Worked as usual then came home and worked some more. While watching the ball drop, I had a lot on my mind, for how during this year I had a lot of life-changing decisions. Not resolutions, just decisions I had to make to better my life. I know, it sounds very much like New Years resolutions, but in the end I was very determined and nervous out of my mind for how I was going to approach them. This I will talk more about later.

School:

At the end of this semester and school year, everything went great. I finally passed Calculus 2, leading me closer to finishing my school years, for now. Just one more math course which will be easier and thereafter courses which would seem like a waste of my time. My ending GPA is a 2.44. What a great way to end the school year.

Work:

Work, sucks, not much has changed. I love working with computers and people, I just hate working for the organization that I do. Everyone advices me to go work for an actual company, but something in me just won’t let me. I understand that certain people love their jobs and I’m sure I would if I find the right one, but would that be truly fulfilling. I have this burning passion to grow this epic company that makes money, focussing on their people (clients and employees), and also doing it in a way that doesn’t seem unconventional. I know this is a huge task, growing any business is a journey, but then to do it the way I envisioned it, just adds more stress. But I have this dream and passion, which I believe if I want to live, I have to follow. I can’t explain it at all, but the only way I can describe it is that it’s like the movie “Wild Hogs”-the characters had a destination and they didn’t have any clue what was going to happen, but they didn’t care because they were chasing that goal. Or a runner running a 4 day marathon-they don’t run necessarily for the money, maybe the recognition, but mostly to prove to themselves that they can do it. I don’t know how else to explain that.

This was actually one of the decisions I had to make, but I’m happy of where I am now and just working hard to get more clients.

Vacation:

So far, I also decided to take it a bit easier this year. Being that I worked all summer since I was 12, I needed a short break before I get completely fried. I have to be honest, sometimes I do get bored and I do feel that my motivation is decreasing again, but I really needed a break.

Accomplishment so far this year:

Recently, I drove down to PA and at first I was scared out of my mind, but once I got closer there was a relief. My plans didn’t go over so well, but I just had to drive down there to get it out of my system. The adrenaline was amazing. The only bad part was that it was an effort to stay in one spot for more than a half hour, but I did it and am very proud of myself. By the time I was driving back, I had no stresses at all. This isn’t the last time I drive down there. What’s next? Probably go visit my brothers in New York, but most likely that will be with the transit.

Over all, it’s all apart of growing up, but the kid inside of me is still allowed to come out. Slowly, but surely.

Until next time, Laters!