Why Are You Avoiding Flash?

Thanks to the Apple / Adobe war, Flash is a topic I find myself discussing with my clients a lot lately. I come down firmly on the side of Adobe as far at the battle is concerned, but I thought I’d jot down a few explanations in layman’s terms as to why I’m mostly avoiding Adobe Flash for general website development.

The 2 main problems Flash proposes:

• Flash (at this time) is not easily indexed by search engines. This is why I completely avoid Flash “splash pages” or “intro pages” and sites designed entirely in Flash. They hurt your Google PageRank and lessen the chances of people finding your website.
• Flash is, unfortunately, not supported by iPhones or the iPad (Shame on you, Apple). Any iPhone or iPad users that access your website will NOT see any Flash content.

I used to use Adobe Flash for interest, interactivity and decorative elements (in small doses) on the websites I designed. I will still use Flash where it is best suited (such as games, video and complex photo galleries). However, I am replacing it with other technologies (such as the jQuery image slide on my home page) when possible. Morally, I side with Adobe Flash, but my main concern is that my clients have websites that are accesible to as many viewers as possible.