Flash based sites are always a treat to your eyes.In the sense, they are always attractive and are fancy.As macromedia is working further and adding more and more advanced features to Flash, we can definitely expect ore and more flash based sites in the near future.However, there is a serious allegation that Flash based sites are a burden on web usage and the web real estate.So, where exactly should we stand.

The pros:

Interactivity

The Actionscript of Flash opens up a vast field of possibilities.From complex flash based games to simple live feedback forms, flash has been utilized to the full of its potential.This new dynamics and fanciness is sure to bring users back to your websites.

A standard browser compatible site

One of the main perceived advantages of Flash is that you dont have to worry about the cross-browser compatibility issues.Your flash site will look the same way it looks in Internet explorer as it looks in Firefox and Opera.As long as the visitor has the flash plug in installed and active, he is going to see the site.

Animation for better reach

Flash and animations go hand in hand.So, using the animation medium that Flash gives, you have a better way to reach people and convey things to them.Also, comparing to the general movie files which are raster graphics based, flash is vector graphics based and thus lightweight with a smaller file size.

The cons:

The Flash Player

Not all browsers will have the flash player installed in it.Also, not many sites have flash in them.So, for anyone to view your flash based site, they should have downloaded and installed the Flash player so that they can view your site and other sites that are flash based.As a matter of fact, not many people like to install flash player for bandwidth reasons.If the visitor doesn’t have flash player installed, you will have to route them to download the flash player or plugin which not many will bother to do.

Optimizing your site

One of the greatest disadvantage of having a flash based site is that the search engines will not index flash based sites and thus your sites presence on the site is very very limited which in turn means you will get very less traffic.

The site load time

The laod time of the flash based site is comparatively higher than the site which is just text and images based which makes some visitors loose their patience and move on.Their is a direct proportionality between the site load time and the number of visitors you are loosing out in due course of time.The more the time your site takes to load, the more poeple are annoyed and more the decrease in visitors eventually.The ideal tradeoff of using Flash would be to use it only if you have a necessity for it or your niche is totally flash based like flash games or so.You may also think of using Flash partly in your site say for your banner and chat.Using flash in a site is always a calculated risk.

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