What Flash version should I require?

[BossWebmaster]

I have a dilemma, perhaps some WPWers have already researched this and can bring me some insight. I created a cool flash splash page (I know, I know... SEO... we are going to add some text content to this page later so I don't need a lecture on that) in Flash CS3 (version 9), and I used Action Script 3. At first I didn't require a specific version, and that caused some problems when our IT director tested it in a browser with flash player 6. So I required version 9, but should I do that? Isn't virtually everyone that looks at my web site going to have to take the step downloading the new flash player? Should I have used Action Script 2 and required a lower version for a better customer experience?

I know everyone should upgrade to the newest version, but I'm not on a crusade to make them do that. I just want people to have the best experience possible on my web site.

Advice?

Thank you.

[bj]

Now, this is just me, but first of all, I run the flashblocker in firefox, which seems to be one of the more popular extensions so I won't see that splash at all unless I choose to. So you have to give me some sort of reason to click the "play" button or I won't see it. And if I haven't clicked it I can guarantee you I'm already using the back button.

Secondly, if I have to install anything to see your ani I am solid gone. Off to your competition.

[BossWebmaster]

Well I have secondary text links underneath it so that may help reduce that. But as far as flash blocker I think you are a bit of an oddball in the online community. I've never met anyone that blocks flash content. Have you ever met anyone other than yourself that blocks flash content? If you have, I bet it's not very many people.

[bj]

You seem to think I'm "an oddball" but I'm not. Just search on slashdot.org for the term "flash" and you'll see. And quite frankly the demographic on slashdot is actually skewed in favor of the "most desired" of marketing departments-- predominantly male 20 and 30 somethings who make decent money in the tech industries.

Everyone who uses an adblocker is blocking flash as part of the package. And adblockers are among the most downloaded extensions available in Firefox. There's even been a brouhaha over it since Google doesn't like it and foots the Firefox development bill.

Adobe wants you to think that there's 99% of computers on the internet that have flash installed (which is so only because browsers no longer give you much of a choice.) What they don't tell you is how many are blocking it in one way or another.

Believe what you want, but even JK Rowling had her developers build an "accessible" non flashed path through her site after poor performance on the all flash version.

[BossWebmaster]

Very interesting, perhaps I could try a split test and see what the bounce rate is on a completely non flash intro page.

[BossWebmaster]

I was just reviewing my stats and only 12 percent even use firefox. I'm sure there are some IE flash blocking extensions out there though. I will continue to research this. I'm still probably going to try the split test.

[bj]

I'll be interested to hear how it goes.

And there are flash/ad blockers for IE, though if I'm remembering correctly IE isn't allowed to autoload flash anyway due to the lawsuit. And IE7 has flashblocking built in.

FlashSelector - Block Flash selectively - The Code Project - ATL

Free AD Blocker for IE

Flash and Pics Control

Those are just the popular ones. There are pages and pages of them.

[leslieposey]

I would like to read more info on flash blocking
please send info to me. rev_leslieposey@freshlifeministries.net

can any one tell me why my site wont load here
freshlifeministries.org

I was going to install a flash for my site I think maybe not?

The flash i made is a simple flash to verify phone number
when it opens it says : please type your phone number and we will call to
verify : Please repeat this number 2659987 when they do it goes to another
flash saying Thanks Please type your e-mail and send
when you verify by clicking on the link in e-mail you will be sent to our members page.

Will it work
comment on why not
Thanks

[khurramali]

The main problem is that most users will not have the updated version of flash player 9 installed on their computers, so it does not matter if your browser is ie or firefox; it will not run the animation becase it has features only supported by Flash9.

The brower will ask the visitor to update the flash version. Which most people might or might not do.

I recommend using action script 2 and when publishing your animation, publish it to support flash 6 or 7 version, which is IMO installed on most computers.

Second question would be that IE does treat Flash as active X content and does display an annoying message and blocking the flash content by default.

[mtuba4u]

The real question is who is your TARGET MARKET ?

Does your TARGET MARKET appriciate flash, or view it as a annoyance......

I personaly view it as an annoyance, as it takes longer to down load and does not supply the info I requested.

Personaly I feel that all these fancy pictures and moving objects is all about FLASH ie show off ....

show offs usualy talk big and deliver nothing... that is the real issue with FLASH all show and no information.

The internet is all about information, and many marketing managers seem to have forgoten this,,,,,,,,

The search engines are picking this up and sites with high levels of flash are slowly losing their rankings with many search engines, purely due to the relavance factor, as flash is usualy not relevant information, but rather visual appeal that marketing staff see and appreciate, but because they do not see SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) with their own eyes they ignore it.

so back to basics, who is your target market and what does your target market group say about Flash,,,,,,

Do the research and wake up to the real world, flash looks good, but does not supply and information......

Use flash sparingly and only on pre determind landing pages (but never your HOME PAGE) where you expect persons who appriciate your hard work to land.....deeper pages should contain fewer images and more structured data.......This will improve your visitor retention and sales conversions.

Looking good is actualy very important, but information is what your clients want. Getting this balance is becoming more dificult each day as technical improvements in search engines make search more specific, and visual appeal is demanded by the marketing teams.

Who are you going to please, the visual marketing aspect team or your potential customers?

you decide and work accordingly.

[likeorganic]

Flash has its place for this is how you install or something useful. But I agree with the others I don’t have it blocked but I roll my eyes and look for the skip intro link or hit the back button if the whole site is flash I am gone.

LT1 Engine Performance

[BossWebmaster]

Originally Posted by khurramali

The main problem is that most users will not have the updated version of flash player 9 installed on their computers, so it does not matter if your browser is ie or firefox; it will not run the animation becase it has features only supported by Flash9.

The brower will ask the visitor to update the flash version. Which most people might or might not do.

I recommend using action script 2 and when publishing your animation, publish it to support flash 6 or 7 version, which is IMO installed on most computers.

Second question would be that IE does treat Flash as active X content and does display an annoying message and blocking the flash content by default.

I checked my statistics. 73% are upgraded to version 9. Of course I don't want to lose the other 27%, but that does show that your statement that "most do not have version 9" is wrong. Most do have it.

And BJ, Flash only doesn't autoload if you embed it using the embed tag, if you embed it using Java it loads fine. Apparently Java does have permission to display flash content and IE does not.

[edhan]

Interesting topic as I am about to apply flash on my index page for video sharing site.

Currently I am having a good flow of traffic but seeing my index page is plain, I hire someone to do flash header showing video.

Seeing the discussion about not many people will be upgrading to flash 9 and also blocking by browser for some. I am thinking whether or not I can have something that detect if flash enabled browser, it will show it otherwise switch to showing a non flash header instead. Is this possible?

[bj]

I am thinking whether or not I can have something that detect if flash enabled browser, it will show it otherwise switch to showing a non flash header instead. Is this possible?

Yes. It's actually built into flash, but usually redirects to the plugin site. The action script can be rewritten to point to a flash-alternative page on your site. Anyone who is adept with Flash should be able to do this for you.

[edhan]

Okay. Thanks bj. I will ask the person to do it. So I just need to ask him to re-direct to a non-flash html.

Thanks!

[BossWebmaster]

edhan

if you google swfobject, it is a javascript that detects whether or not the user has flash enabled and if they do not it shows html instead, I have used it before on this page: 55+ Retirement Community in Florida - On Top of the World Communities, I created an entire html version with dropdowns and everything of the front page.

[edhan]

Thanks! I will have to let the programmer knows about this and do the necessary stuff.

[BossWebmaster]

My flash splash page has %90 click rate.

It probably wouldn't be much higher if it were pure HTML.

Tomorrow, if I have time, I am going to design an html alternate for browsers without flash. We'll see if the rate goes up any after that.

Still, some of you seem to be vastly over exaggerating how unpopular flash is. This is the web 2.0, get with it, or get left behind. That's my 2 cents.

[bj]

Still, some of you seem to be vastly over exaggerating how unpopular flash is. This is the web 2.0, get with it, or get left behind. That's my 2 cents.

Depends on what your site is about. If your site is appealing to the Britney watchers or gamers, or it's a music or club site, then yeah, flash it to the max (but include some real text and links.) If it's a site for people looking to purchase most things, it gets in the way of the real information and can hurt your conversions. And if your site is mostly informational and you have a flash splash, then it's just plain annoying.

As with any website, you have to play to the audience. If you don't then YOU get left behind.

[BossWebmaster]

It's a real estate web site, for a company that has the highest market-share in its area. Competition is highly competitive. In my opinion flash can be used for more than titillating young people. The quality of your graphic design is a huge factor to consumers, and flash animation, when done well, can greatly add to that. Flash animation can set you apart from a competitor.

[Clay Martin]

I agree with many here that a whole page/site done in flash is best suited for an entertainment focused site such as bands, games, etc. and is bad for SEO.

And yes I am turned off when looking to buy a widgit and land on a site that starts with Loading.... This is because I am shopping and want to quickly see (and compare to other vendors) their products and prices.

That said, there can still be places flash can be used to augment the pitch. We had a customer that was involved in the FCC mandate that broadcasters (like the news van that shows up at a fire or sports event) switch from analog to digital methods (referred to as the 2Ghz relocation) to send picture and sound back to the studio or to the news van. All broadcasters were required to move to the new equipment before a point in time arrived.

So on their page touting that they could help these customers move over to the new tech (lots of good text content) they wanted to show that they had the inventory to do the job now. To keep the load time down, we used flash to show pics of racks of equipment ready to be installed. Animated gif was too large, flash cut the load time down for visual augmentation of the textual pitch. Keep in mind that the size of the flash presentation was 249 x 190 pixels, and so small that on broadband it loaded immediately. Our customer maintained that their customers would all be on something better than dialup.

Used wizely flash can be usefull for helping the pitch.

BTW we used an older flash version to minimize the "you need to download a upgraded version..." message. We went for 2 versions behind the current level available at the time. You may want to export your swf file in a couple of versions, and balance any improvement in size against what version is more common.

HTH,
Clay

[BossWebmaster]

Very good points Clay, I agree 100%.

BTW, I have uploaded my alternate HTML content for people with Flash Disabled or who haven't upgraded to player 9, we'll see what happens to our bounce rate in a week or so.

[joshjones]

In my opinion, I would personally run flash 8 or 9 right now, and not worry about 6 or even 7 at this point... On my site, which is obviously slanted to heavy flash users as I sell flash ecomm, I do not even get people with flash 7 on it...

and in terms of to flash or not to flash, I would not even answer those types of questions... I don't think those looking forward to the web in 10 years are even concerned with "to skip" or "not to skip" introductions and crap like that.

Those who leverage flash are going to lead. even google analytics have raised some eyebrows... with flash player utilization...

[BossWebmaster]

Amen brother! With sites like google video and you tube that use flash to show their movies, I think most people have upgraded. Everyone I know regardless of age or computer savvy watches videos on those sites, and they require flash!

[imsickofwebpro]

Flash is for lamers!!!

Chanting:
Word..Press...Word...Press...Word..Press...


...




On a serious note:

JoshJones: I like your Ecommerce system, its cool!... does it have a CMS? I'd like to see it. =-)

BossWebmaster: I like you because you use flash... Good man, it's the future!

But...Flash is crap when -
a) a preloader takes forever
b) when tweening is done without easing
c) when a flash designer is ambiguous to the use of the "loadMovie" or "loadMovieNum" function.
d) when flash is used to animate horrible looking images and text.

Fixes:
a) Don't load everything into the first frame in _root.
b) Use mx.transitions.Tween or get a 'custom easing plugin'
c) Make separate swf's/jpeg's and load them into MC's located in the main swf
d) Import png/jpeg, go to your library, right click on the image, choose properties and increase quality.

Also, use Flash 8 settings because it has text Anti-Alias settings.

Good thread BossWebmaster!

[BossWebmaster]

Thanks. There is a right way and a wrong way to do everything, no doubt about that.

[imsickofwebpro]

JoshJones,

I checked out your admin, skimmed two videos and viewed the websites using your Ecommerce. Dude, this is awesome! Layout and code is classed and well organized...really good app man.

Questions:
1. How do you control sessions?
2. What are your security preventative measures? I assume they're php based. Why can't i just convert the swf's of the $499 version into fla's too?


Comments:
1. You should offer tutorials... Now that would be awesome!

[flsurfkarma]

I always ask for the last version.... not the latest.

[jomariet]

"Isn't virtually everyone that looks at my web site going to have to take the step downloading the new flash player?"

I never download a plugin or upgrade a plugin for just one website. If I can't see the content that's your loss not mine. There are always alternative websites for me to look at. I also don't click on the "HTML Version" links. I back button to google and check the next website on the list.

JM

[BossWebmaster]

Originally Posted by jomariet

"Isn't virtually everyone that looks at my web site going to have to take the step downloading the new flash player?"

I never download a plugin or upgrade a plugin for just one website. If I can't see the content that's your loss not mine. There are always alternative websites for me to look at. I also don't click on the "HTML Version" links. I back button to google and check the next website on the list.

JM

Well aren't we just the party pooper?

A) You are in a group of about 1-3% of internet users

B) My web sites automatically detect if you have flash enabled or not and show alternate html content automatically.

So there!