Adobe Flash, back then called Macromedia Flash was introduced in 1996 as a promising and exciting new multimedia platform. With Flash, designers and artists are able to create movies, animation, and interactive websites. Flash has had a great run but the buzz is growing louder and louder that Flash is on its way out.
My latest memories of the use of Flash all include gaudy Web Pages with techno music or annoying banner ads. Most business owners are ignorant in what is real cutting edge design and usually request some kind of Flash effect on their site. As a search engine marketer, I was taught that the use of Flash should be minimal, if at all, on a site that wants to be found on the search engines (SEO). This is because Flash sites and applications are not easily optimized. There is also a connection between high bounce rates and sites that have a Flash intro. Computer users will continue to expect faster functionality on a sight, and waiting for an intro to finish has become very un-cool.
The biggest sign that Flash is on its way out was made evident when Apple decided to discontinue the Flash capability for iPhones and Touch. These devices are changing the way we live and access the internet.
The Adobe Flash camp and the developers who like working with Flash are obviously not happy and have been vocal in their disagreement with Apple cutting Flash off. Recently, an Adobe rep for Flash named Lee Brimelow stated “Now let me put aside my role as an official representative of Adobe for a moment as I would look to make it clear what is going through my mind at the moment. Go screw yourself, Apple.”
There is new information that Adobe is no longer investing any further resources in the development of the product. If you want to have a high performance site with mobile visibility, shift your focus from incorporating Flash to start looking into animation with CSS3 and HTML5.
One Comment
Would love to hear more about where you’ve heard that Adobe no longer will invest in Flash. That would be breaking news