7 Drawbacks of Flash
Adobe Flash is good that it allows unmatched interactivity, source code is protected and it is good to be used for animation and media. Interactive elements or movement can be created upon modification and add color to the sites when using flash. Nevertheless, we suggest you not to build up a website entirely by flash, or creating main functionality of your sites within flash.
Not Search Engine Friendly: Google and Yahoo search engine just able to read Flash files, their developers have done put lots of efforts in configuring the flash movie. There are still many constraints in some aspects, like what links search engines can crawl or index. This shows the search engines may not pick up the text which contained within the flash, hence, it prohibits search engines to be found and list essential content to your customers. So Google still recommends people to use Flash sparingly.
Immobility: In this society where we are highly mobilized (around 4.1 cellulars in 2008), it is disappointing when we cannot browse some information using mobile phones and iPhones just because we do not have Flash installed as Flash is not designed for mobile phones, or even iPhones as Apple has not yet got into cooperation with Adobe.
Lack of Consistent Cross-Platform Support: If you think adding HTML tags is annoying enough, be prepared to tackle the anguish you may come across when Flash is involved. You might have experienced difficulties when a page with Flash cannot load because JavaScript is needed, wait till you see all the idiosyncratic troubles you might run into with a flash animated web page.
Player of Flash Required: In order to view Flash animations, new computers need to be equipped with Flash Player which is downloaded from Adobe’s website. People will not get access to some potentially valuable content on your page if they choose not to install the Player.
Difficulty To Access: People who have vision impairments or who are using text reader without MAJOR modifications cannot access Adobe Flash. Without modifications, Flash sites cannot be read. Flash is not Section 508 Compliant which most government and higher education websites are equipped with.
High Cost: Flash is not a cheap software, it costs $700. There are many additional costs like those for maintenance and for updates. These create a huge fortune for small enterprises and web developers. HTML is a much better choice in terms of cost.
It is undeniable that Flash is useful in some aspects. However there are different kinds of restrictions of utilizing this technology, when you need to build websites or select a developer for your site.
