Flash Websites need to die

[Evan Carroll]

Here are some links from Adobe about the technology that permitted this: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/...

And here is Google's progression with flash since 2008 http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/google-lea... http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/0... http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/0...

Microsoft doesn't index flash -- this probably has /something/ to do with running a proprietary competitor (Silverlight).

Yahoo also indexes flash.

I'm not arguing that flash is great -- and, I hope it dies. My opinion is a concurring one; but, it still totally incorrect to say that search engines "cannot read a Flash element". They can -- and better than most proprietary formats (.doc, .ppt, etc). And, having followed the Apple/Adobe dispute, I can't see the merit in Apple's argument at all -- bad politics are preventing iPad's from using Flash.

 

[Evan Carroll]

And, it looks like the far more open Andriod platform might be quick to throw on the gloves to go against the iPad. Fresh off the press today: http://www.pcworld.com/article/195635/adobe_flash...

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Thank you Evan. I can't stand being called out without any basis. But I'll be the first to stand up and say you got me if you ever do.

I want to say first that I was a big Macromedia fan (thank you for Dreamweaver) and an even bigger Adobe fan. I hope the geniuses at Adobe can figure out a new Flash format that is lighter and better. They have a business to hold onto and I see them either figuring it out or exhausting it. I just don't know where they are in that process. Seems Apple and Microsoft have foreseen the end of Flash though.

I know flash can have SEO elements built under it. I know you can build SEO elements around it. I have seen some sites that have done a really good job in that area, but I can assure you these were not car dealer websites.

I have read your webpage and know that you come from the Real Estate industry. I don't know how much time you've spent in the car business, but Flash websites definitely need to die on the dealer level for the reasons I noted above. And let me go back to support my claim on SEO and Flash for a car dealer: most website hosting companies that even allow a dealer to add their own flash elements do not allow other pieces to be added to that element. So dealers are solely dealing in unoptimized Flash if they even know how to purchase or build their own Flash elements. In reality, most Flash-based dealer websites are touched once. Maybe the site host put some SEO content in there, but I'd be willing to bet the vast majority do not keep things up to date for SEO purposes. Flash in the car business either equates to a big ego, a cheap contract, or a "make my site pretty" factor. I guarantee you the dealers that signed-up for a flash website didn't have SEO in their vocabulary when they signed on the dotted line. There are some who are starting to get it like http://www.herbchambers.com but they are the minority.

I can go on and on about this, but the conclusion is still: Flash websites need to die. Flash websites absolutely should die a disgustingly fast death for dealer websites due to the reasons listed in the original article.

Evan, I hope you can view things on DealerRefresh from a car business perspective (the intended audience) and speak on that level. I agree with you on the broader level, but we're dealing with two very different animals.

 

[Evan Carroll]

I actually don't come from the Real Estate industry. I'm employed in the automotive industry currently. I'm a computer programmer, that is doing real estate for fun.

All of your points are opionions in your reply seem fairly accurate.

My discrepancy was with the original article. Searchable SWF means text in Flash - with no indicator otherwise - will be indexed as well as any other unmarked-up text in the search engines that support it.

Given, Flash is bad for usability, semantics, and just about any other non-visual component. It is adopted more often by the ignorant and abandoned more often by the enlightened. It certainly has much smaller set of good applications for business than it is used for. But, still that wasn't really the point of the article. The point that flash is bad because of Apple, is a fallacy of equivocation: if anything, Apple is bad because it lacks flash. It lacks Flash because of Job's ideology that he only applies to people competing with him.

The point of SEO is off for the reasons previously discussed.

And, the point of installs is the same justification that is often used to perpetuate Flash at the expense of forcing people to update their browser. IE6 users will often have flash installed but will not be able to utilize AJAX or take advantage of CSS2, or a working Javascript model.

It comes down to the reasons that Flash is bad. I fully agree with conclusion.

 

[Dave Keller]

We have also noticed that Dealerships, especially, have VERY flash heavy websites. That is partially why we created www.dealershipsearch.com, its offers and alternative to those types of sites.