DHTML or Flash? by Riaan Pieterse
The last five years has seen an exponential growth in the use of shockwave and
flash animations in creating websites. The old tried and trusted techniques
such as D/HTML are slowy moving over to make room for this newer multimedia
delivery vehicle. Scripting, such as Javascript, is viewed with disdain by some
and ignored by others. Yet the people who advocate the use of flash/shockwave
in creating multimedia-rich sites are not asking the right question: Is all
that glitters gold?
An important facet of flash / shockwave glossed over by most people is that
these technologies are a packaged scripting environment: In other words - most
of what you can do in flash, you can do in DHTMl with a liitle effort. A
question that pops up at this stage is: Why would I want to go through all of
that? The answer is simple and is illustrated by way of practical example.
Pick a topic - any topic - and type the relevant seach keywords into your
favorite search engine. Now try to find a flash site under the first thirty
results. You will be surprised to find that this 'silver bullet' of web design
does not even feature. The majority of search engines do not support the
indexing of shockwave / flash sites - this can have a detrimental effect on
your Internet business if you rely on search engine traffic to generate
revenue. Remember one thing: Content is king and the only recognised content is
in HTML pages.
Bells & Whistles: Where, When and What
Deploying rich multimedia sites are becoming more and more a design
requirement. However, the objective of your site should be the determining
factor between using D/HTML or Flash for multimedia content. Exposure and the
generation of revenue solidly discounts the use of Flash as the major site
component - search placement is too important to sacrifice for a simple thing
such shiny buttons. D/HTML provides an attractive alternative to ensuring that
your site is indexed properly by search engines.
However, Flash should not be put out to pasture based on this: Limited Flash
content can still be an asset on your Internet presence if used judisciously.
Corporate Intranets are another matter entirely: Flash provides the perfect
delivery vehicle for rich business applications, where DHTML would be more of a
liability than an asset - e.g. training material, presentations and etcetera.
In conclusion, the objective of a site should determine which of the two
technologies are the preferred medium for mutimedia delivery.
About the Author
Riaan Pieterse is the CEO and founder of Kerberos Internet Services CC, South
Africa. Having spent a number of years conducting various consulting
assignments in the Far East, Middle East, Africa and Europe to businesses and
governments alike, Riaan has a solid understanding of the business and
technology issues in today's market.
For more information visit http://www.kerberosdev.net
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