Flash based websites can look absolutely stunning; some of my favourite sites in fact are Flash based.
Two of my favourite ones currently in the UK are:
Both sites are very elegant and really show off the best of the work of both of these great photographers.
I think everyone is aware that Flash sites, implemented incorrectly, no matter how beautiful they are, can have a dramatic detriment to your business.
The key in the above sentence is “implemented incorrectly”. Correctly implemented Flash sites; including index-able content, reserve pages and static images, whilst not a favourite of the Google spiders, can work well.
There are pitfalls however.
Pitfall #1
On the SWPP forum this week there was a post about a photographer who’s site was not appearing in Internet Explorer on 64bit windows. To be precise, the site was not appearing in 64bit Internet Explorer on Windows. It would appear fine in the 32bit model.
The reason for this is simple: There is no 64bit version of Flash for 64bit browsers. Click here for Adobe’s official word.
More and more PCs are shipping with 4GB or more of RAM these days, which means more and more vendors are opting for 64bit versions of the operating system. Whilst Internet Explorer has both a 64bit and 32bit version installed you still risk alienating a rising amount of visitors to your site by not preparing your Flash files correctly.
A simple test is to view your site on a 64bit browser. What do you see? Is it a blank page?
-km (listening to: Walking in my Sleep, Alabama 3)
Thanks Kev. This is a brilliant site hosting by a cool dude!
interesting read kev, keep up the work
Great site Kevin
will be back to check out weekly