Love it or hate it, Flash has now been around for 10 years. In the right hands Flash can enhance the web with animation & clever interactivity, equally, in the wrong hands you find cumbersome & clunky websites that could have more easily have been created in standard HTML. And with users first impressions to your website being down to about a nanosecond these days you really do want to avoid the ''Please click here for the Flash Site or Click here for the Standard HTML'' non-sense - incredibly it still goes on.
Behind the scenes there have been a number of controversial issues surrounding Flash over the years, serious security holes, lack of web standards compliance for accessibility, and more recently a backlash against rich-media banner formats. The new media industry also looked on in surprise when in 2005 Adobe (Photoshop, Acrobat etc) took ownership of Macromedia (Flash, Director), with concerns that they would do away with or destroy our everyday tools was unfounded. At last though, after some considerable time, the debate about the number of users with and without Flash seems to have gone away forever. I can't count the number of meetings I attended where we debated the user base / installation percentages of Flash Player , ''The latest statistics from Macromedia are that 25 %, 40%, 60% etc etc of users have Flash Installed'' - Yawn.
Like everything in life I think Flash should be used in moderation and only where appropriate, to enhance a website - yes, to build a website - probably no, though I do love film micro sites like Pirates of the Caribbean & Happy Feet. For eLearning using Flash is a no brainer, with built in Scorm Compliance and the ability to load in external language copy has made life alot easier, aswell as being able to enhance the way content is introduced and presented. You can also use Flash to build desktop applications like product configurators or sales support aids. Flash also seems to have devoured a large slice of the online video arena, with sites like You Tube now adopting Flash Video rather than Microsoft WMV/ASF, Real Video or QuickTime formats - probably as its quick and easy to encode and that the Flash Player is now so prolific. Online advertising is now starting to test the waters with Flash Video as well, though some legal wrangling over copyright of material seems to be putting the buffers on some adverts & promos going live.
Theres no debate that Flash is here to stay, and with the latest Version 9 on the horizon with even more powerful features (requiring a new player update of course) it's going to extend again the capabilities and creativity that the technology brings.
However, there's a bit of a dark cloud on the horizon for Flash - Microsoft are now fine tuning their very own Flash rival codenamed WPF/E. It looks like it has all the right components for animation, graphics, audio and video to give Flash a run for it's money. It'll probably get bundled into a browser as well although the beta version requires a quick plug-in install.
The tools are starting to emerge for developers to try this technology so watch this space - another thing to learn and another product to purchase!
Take a look at a few links about Flash, examples of Flash in action etc...
Flash is 10 years old
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6169853.stm
Web Compliance Standards
http://www.w3.org
Pirates if the Caribbean
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/pirates/
Happy Feet
http://www2.warnerbros.com/happyfeet/
Cool Flash Site
http://www.2advanced.com/
You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/
Flash Magazine
http://www.flashmagazine.com
Microsoft WPF/E
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb187358.aspx
WPF/E Blog
http://thewpfblog.com/?cat=3&paged=2
By Richard Lawrence