Advantage of Flash in websites?

[dmcantrell]

Forgive me if this has been covered, but I did a search and couldn't find the answer.

What is the advantage of having a photography website done in Flash? What are the disadvantages? I see a lot of photography websites done in Flash, and I'm just curious why those photographers decided to go that way.

Thanks!

[dryicerx]

Advantages: Smoother animations/transitions between photos, and guarantee that the layout and everything will look identical for everyone, and use of any font.

Disadvantages: Search engines can't crawl content with in flash applets correctly. You need the flash plugin installed, so some people cannot view them. They break the use of the back button in navigation. You cannot link directly to sections in a full flash site. And editing a flash site requires having the original FLV, which makes it impossible to make quick little changes on the fly with a simple text editor.

The reason lot of photography pages are full flash is because available templates, and the user can simply change the title/description and put some images and they immediately have a web page. Personally I despise full flash web sites, websites should in html/css/js, and flash should be used sparingly only when needed (I think your website is a good example of a good balance).

[HotHolly]

CCS and just plain old HTML are VERY functional, but not as (forgive me) flashy. Thats just it. Flash sites have an awesome presentation. Works great as long as you dont use dial up. Realize if you are in a rural area, no one will wait for your site to load. Also realize iPhone users cannot see flash.

There are new flash templates with readable text, the ability to link directly to a page (eg: Abilene Boudoir - Flirty, Sexy, Pretty Photography for Women connects to the B&A gallery on my boudoir site).

This site, while better than old flash sites and is easily editable, still has issues being logged into search engines, loading issues for slower connections, etc.

We used html custom sites for a LONG time. I switched stuff over to flash templates about 2-3 years ago b/c of time issues. I needed to edit quickly and update info. I have mutliple businesses and Im not a webmaster, but Im acting as one. So Im self taught in html, flash, swish, ccs, and a bunch of other odds and ends. Using a template is WAY faster and easier for me. I hate the conformity, but its a small price to pay for the time it allotted me.

[Flea77]

I think the others said it well. If you want all the bells and whistles while understanding some people will never be able to see your site, use Flash. If you are more into everyone being able to see the site than it being "cool", don't use flash.

Remember that it is not just people running iPhones, it is people like me who run a 64bit browser (no 64bit Flash plugin), people who run flash blockers to avoid ads, people on dial-up, etc.

Allan