Heh... I used to say that, back in the day. I used to proselytize to everyone about how "Flash is the future, the future is at hand, behold that which is amazing and true!" Then I found out about web standards, usability (and the tendency of flash developers to make wholly unusable sites), and myriad other reasons why Flash is called "Flash" and not "Perpetuity". That's not even touching the SEO aspects, which (I'm sure) have been much improved since the olden days. I can't think of one person I've worked with that started using Flash and didn't say the same thing.

Don't get me wrong, I dig Flash, I love the stuff people have done with it, and are doing with it, but I can't say that it's the "future of the internet." No way. It's had plenty of time to become the future (and it *has* matured tremendously, no doubt about it) but I still maintain that Flash has its time and its place, and will never become the ubiquitous standard for web development.

All that being said, it may not be the 'future', but it sure isn't going anywhere. There's plenty of support for it, plenty of interest from artists, plenty of end-user knowledge of it, and it really does put out attractive stuff. I think it'll continue to march into the future with the rest of the web technologies (as opposed to fading into obscurity), but "the future of the internet"? I'd better call Al Gore and ask him... ;)

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