SEO Blog

Loren Baker over at Search Engine Journal has posted a good piece by SEOResearcher.com writer Oleg Ishenko outlining five reasons Flash is not an optimial option.

“Flash Is Evil. Five Big Reasons Not to Use Flash”

1/ Flash requires bandwidth

Despite of the DSL Internet access being available almost everywhere, there are still lots of people surfing the Net via dialup or other limited bandwidth connection. Flash files, especially those using sound effects, embedded movies or bitmap images, can take a while to load.

2/ Disabled back button

Some Flash designers use meta refreshes or other tricks to disable browser’s Back button. As the famous usability expert Jacob Nielsen says, ‘Back button is the second most important navigation element after hyperlinks’. People not able to use Back button will click the third most important navigation element - that X button in the top right. Besides, if you are going to promote a Flash site via PPC, you should know that Google AdWords doesn’t approve pages with disabled back button.

3/ Flash ignores users needs

Sometimes the stories sort of write themselves. This is one of those times. The two most prominent and widely ridiculed examples of vapour-wear are about to be released, possibly within months of each other.

IGN Entertainment, a gaming news site published by Fox Interactive reports today that Take-Two Interactive has signed a $4.5 million agreement with 3D Realms to distribute a video game that was “highly anticipated” six years ago. A bonus clause in the agreement promises $500K if the game is delivered before December 31. It looks like Duke Nukem really will return, likely sooner than later.

Meanwhile, down the road in Redmond Washington, an inevitable and unenviable announcement has leaked from Microsoft. A devastating bug was found in Vista (Build 5824) two weeks ago. Though the bug was fixed in Vista Build 5840, reprogramming will cause yet another delay in shipping the software to PC manufacturers.

According to Ethan Allen, a software tester contracted by Microsoft who discovered the bug, the problem, “…totally crash the system, requiring a complete reinstall,” Allen made his comments in an interview with CIO.com writer Al Sacco.