SILBERBAUER SAYS:

Why Flash Sometimes Doesn't Suck  

Klaus Silberbauer / Thursday, March 08, 2007

It's common knowledge: If you want to get your message out there your site must be accessible to search engines, especially Google. That's why I normally tell my clients not to use Flash for the entire site. Yes, Flash can access databases and XML, Flash makes all that nifty effects possible and Flash will show in the same way in all browsers (if it shows at all, of course).

But in the end: Content inside the Flash file will not be indexed by Google. Unless you spend a lot of time and money on shadowing your pages in html and in other ways tricking Google to index your site, your content is nonexistent as far Google is concerned as long as it's wrapped in Flash.

So, in my - and most other web professionals' - opinion, Flash is great for doing the icing, not for making the cake itself.

That's why I'm so happy to find out that the NRA (National Rifle Association) website is almost pure Flash. If you google NRA member and gun rights wacko Wayne LaPierre, or the title of some of his articles on nra.org, you won't find the NRA website at all. Fantastic. In that way children won't accidentally stumble upon NRA's unhealthy message: That guns are great toys and that we are safe as long as we have the option to gun down each other.

Now, if only the large tobacco companies, arms manufacturers and religious fundamentalist organisations would be so kind as to hide their content behind a Flash plugin too, the web would be a much healthier place to be.