7 Drawbacks of Flash
Adobe Flash is popular among designers and creators working with animations and media. Source code is secured and interactivity is guaranteed. Through incorporating Flash, the customized website will be lightened up by mobile and interactive components. But believe it or not, there are a number of drawbacks to this amazing software. We would recommend that you do not use Flash for the site’s menu, nor should you use it for the whole website.
Not Search Engine Friendly: Major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo still have difficulties to crawl websites with Flash. It is therefore recommended by Google that we dial it back. This may be costing web developers a fortune, when you consider how much information on the website was kept away from potential customers, because search engines have problems listing Flash sites under its search results.
Immobile: Imagine the 4.1 billion mobile phones users in 2008, many of those with an iPhone who want to view a website with Flash and realize that they cannot. Flash is not as mobile as many of us might have expect. Desktop and laptop computers are fine with Flash Players, but iPhone was not considered when Flash was introduced. There has been cooperative discussions between Apple and Adobe concerning the problem, but a solution is nowhere to be seen up till this moment.
Lack of Consistent Cross-Platform Support: Some people may think adding HTML tags to a document is already very fussy, when they know about insertion of Flash, they certainly will go mad. You need JavaScript support in order to help assist some browsers in loading the web-pages.
Flash Player Required: If you want to view Flash animations, you need to download the Flash Player from the Adobe website. However, you still can choose not to download it. Since it is not necessary, Flash Player is not a potentially valuable on your site.
Difficulty To Access: People who have vision impairments or who are using text reader without MAJOR modifications cannot access Adobe Flash. Without modifications, Flash sites cannot be read. Flash is not Section 508 Compliant which most government and higher education websites are equipped with.
Cost: As compared to HTML, Flash is extremely costly. In addition to the $700 you paid for the software, there are extra costs when you want to upgrade it to the most recent versions. Not to forget the maintenance fee to keep everything running smoothly. The high cost is taking a toll on web developers who only own a small business.
It is undeniable that Flash is useful in some aspects. However there are different kinds of restrictions of utilizing this technology, when you need to build websites or select a developer for your site.
