Free Targeted Website Traffic

FLASH A Very Bad Idea

Nancy from Los Angeles -

I can't stand flash webpages. They are slow. The navigation is always funky. You can't cut and paste.

They are simply a pain in the ass and don't help me get whatever information I am looking for.

For special applications, as a small part of a website Flash might be OK. For the introduction or as the whole webpage they Flash needs to be Flushed.

For example, all the movies seem to use too much flash and video clips. I want to find out about a movie on the web and then be entertained at the Movie Theater. If I am entertained on the web, why go to the movies?

Comment #1 Sapphire from Outer Space -

I have problems with flash pages when I'm using Firefox. I'm hoping that problem will go away if I download the newest version of the firefox browser. When I'm using IE, flash doesn't bother me at all.

Comment #2 Billy from Beverly Hills -

One of the best thinks I like about using FreeBSD/gnome/Firefox is that it doesn't show any flash.

With windows I could never figure out how to uninstall flash once you installed it.

Comment #3 Paul Roupinian from Redondo beach -

Many people are still on dial up. The Flash vogue is over and I am glad. I have it sitting on sites and templates I never use. All it does is cause visitors to sit and wait until the Flash is over and they can get to the page. Why give browsers a reason to leave?

Comment #4 PokerPrincess from Hogstown, The Universe -

I am in total agreement with the statement "why give browsers a reason to leave. You make a very good point in the fact that there are still a lot of dial-up users. In fact even the broadband users still have a dial-up back up if the broadband goes down or as in the case of this U.S. Law on pokeronline some of the "outside" the U.S. customers are using AOL broadband and it is routed through the U.S. which leaves them in a vicarious position to go into sites that have banned U.S. users. They have had to resort to dial-up in order to go through Netscape.ca (an AOL alternative by AOL).

Now let's say thse people, while they are on dial-up, decide to do some surfing and come to a flash page and then simply say "it isn't worth the hassle" then leave and forget to come back because they are on to something else.

A lost customer.

Comment #5 Kaabi from Maryland -

Flash is also hard to learn, just a note I'm throwing into the ring. I like Flash web pages, even though they are long to load.

Comment #6 Dixie from Somewhere Over The Rainbow -

I'm not a big fan of flash pages. I don't really see the need for them. When I was on dialup, they were really a pain. I wouldn't use flash on my site.

Comment #7 jennifer from Detroit -

Here's the flip side of the coin though:

A lot of cool and new sites are using FLASH very effectively. Think of YouTube and Etsy that are doing super cool things with it. So if you're trying to do something innovative and to stand out then you should be careful about dismissing FLASH. It's very powerful and catchy. If, however, you're doing your own little site, then I agree that it slows things down and you have to be careful.

Comment #8 Fred from NYC -

I don't have flash installed and don't do business with websites that for you to have flash.

I would agree that flash COULD BE a useful addition to many websites to "add some flash". But to have it the main navagation and offer nothing to users without flash is a complete crock.

Not to mention that it kills any possiblity of any useful search engine listings.

Comment #9 SomeoneAwful from The World -

I wouldn't say kill it. I've seen some flash sites that are good in the rankings, and just get a lot of traffic from word-of-mouth. But I must admit, those cases are rare. My stand: Flash is for animation and presentation, not websites.

Comment #10 RiverQueen from Anywhere You Want -

Well, I do like FLASH in some cases as stated above such as when you want to stand out from the crowd.

However, who are we designing web pages for, ourselves or the customer. Don't we have to look at how the customer reacts to what's on the site?

Also if you are having problems getting hits on your site remember that those on dial-up will comment on the sites to their friends if they like them.

Just MHO

Comment #11 webmama from Somewhere in the south -

I don't really have a dislike for it. When it is taking over the whole page I kind of like it. I wasn't a fan when I dial up but now with dsl its not a problem.

Comment #12 bnesbitt from Arkansas USA -

I had a Flash (created by a CoffeeCup Flash Editor -- forty bucks!) on our front page for a couple of years and it didn't seem to hurt anything. We still do well with our keywords on Google... I just got rid of it because the page didn't contain any "real" content and I'm on a kick to simplify and optimize.

Comment #13 Billy from Beverly Hills -

Good move. Maybe you were doing ok with the flash, maybe you'll do better with out it! Was the whole page flash, or was it just a little bit of it?

Comment #14 bnesbitt from Arkansas USA -

The whole page was a Flash slideshow with a song. So cool! I went to an all-day SEO class and that on the the list of things not to do.

Comment #15 Billy from Beverly Hills -

I think it would be great if you put the slide show on an inside page people could view if they wanted. That I believe is the correct use of Flash.

Forcing *everyone* to view a flash slide show will lose a lot of viewers (not counting how it might affect search engines).

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