When it comes to web sites, I used to think Flash was pretty cool. Flash, you know...when a web site seems to take on a life of its own.  The viewer is subjected to a dazzling display of dancing graphics, video, never ending music, dings, beeps, and other sound effects and, unless there’s a Skip Intro link, you are FORCED to endure it, whether you want to or not.

Flash is actually intrusive, arrogant, and annoying.  Even if you use it on your personal family web site, unless you constantly change the Flash-y entertainment, how many times does Aunt Thelma want to sit through all that...it’s like watching the same TV show over and over and over and....you get the idea.

The web work we do is to generate BUSINESS, educate and inform, sell stuff, maintain the image, fortify a brand.   So, I was amazed when a local business group enthusiastically introduced their new web site a few weeks ago and it was constructed totally in FLASH!  (It was described by a member as "sexy"!  Huh?)  Fun to build for the designer, but horrible for the user and certainly not a good investment for the organization! Why?  Google and the other search engines can’t read anything that’s in the Flash portion of the site.   All the search engines see is the meta tags (title tag, keywords, description) if those have been created … but that doesn’t help if they can’t read the page, because they won’t know if the meta tags are legitimately reflecting what the page is about.  
 
Sites that use Flash have no “GoogleJuice,” as my super smart Tech Friends say.  Flash sites just sit there, dumb, like a phone with an unlisted number.  They disable the “go back” button (you just go to the last non-Flash page you were at), you can’t copy and paste text from the page  (a HUGE problem when you want to make it easy to share information), you can’t bookmark a page (it just bookmarks the main URL-another mistake), you can’t send a link to a particular page in thesite....the list goes on.

I would imagine this local site wanted to showcase their events, feature member businesses, rental opportunities, etc.  But if a prospective tenant or customer pays a visit to this noisy site, if they’re surfing at work, they’ll likely get busted since the music never, EVER turns off, and every time you click on a link, “DING!”   ARRRGGGHHH! Wiseup ... this is business, for Goodness Sake, not PINBALL!

Dazzling maybe, annoying for sure, and all in all, Flash sites miss the mark.

I’ve learned my lesson.