As always with Web Development there is a never ending battle between development and standards. With the rise of more complicated site layouts being released all the time it makes certain websites inaccessible to users with less capable machines, the term “1 shoe fits all” no longer applies to the world wide web.

Within the last 5-6 years we’ve seen the boom in the popular web format .swf otherwise known as a Shockwave Flash file. This is a brilliant product which has boosted the interactivity and lessened the “static-ness” of the internet for good.

Whilst flash has it’s benefits, like everything else that tastes good in this world, it also has it’s fair share of drawbacks. The major fault still apparent today as it was years ago, the download of the flash player needed to play those .swf files.

Another experience is using javascript or Adobes generated code to dynamically write in the flash movie into the document. Reason behind this is to ensure users on alternate web browsers will not get the famous “click here to activate and use this control” error. So from a user perspective this can be really intrusive.

Some people like to use the noscript tag to determine that if javascript is not enabled display the following lines of code contained within the noscript. This is good but not solid enough to solely rely on. Some flash detection also needs to take place and if your willing to divert users who don’t make the grade to a HTML version of your website the better, not to mention this will also maximize your potential user base!

Whatever happens, whatever the drawbacks I can whole heartedly say that flash has made a huge impact on the way we interact with the web forever and with the speed flash is continually evolving I am enthusiastic for whatever the future brings.