Poor Flash. Its gotten a bad rep over the last few years. Hailed as a fabulous tool for improving the online multimedia experience – there seem to be more reasons not to use it than reasons to use it. (The first items on my list aren’t anything new).
Flash is Bad for SEO and Accessibility)
A lot of people adopted it to give their sites “a little bit of edge and movement” but in the process hid their most important content entirely from search engines and site readers in much the same way that putting phone numbers and addresses in images completely buried their content. People have been cautioned to take their critical content out of Flash for years.
Not visible on iPhones and iPads
Apple decided not to support the technology on its products based on the fact that it is a proprietary technology. As some one who depends upon both quite a bit, I think site designers and owners should take this seriously. Imagine this scenario. A couple is searching for a home and while driving around is looking up listings using their iphone or ipad. If the local Realtor’s® website is built in Flash the listings won’t be seen. A lot of local Realtor® sites are in Flash – luckily larger companies know better.
Social Media
Today’s post was prompted by my attempt to put a facebook link to a Museum of Bird Carving in Maine. The carvings are spectacular and I wanted to share them with my friends. As you are no doubt aware facebook allows you to embed a thumbnail with your post based on the images that are coded into the page you are linking to. One is chosen automatically but you can select another if more than one exists.
The thumbnail image is really what attracts people to check out the link. Its visual.
My first attempt was to link to the home page. Unfortunately my only thumbnail choice was the image of wood shavings. I decided to select the Collection page instead. This gave me the option of selecting the image of the bird with the fish in its mouth (a vast improvement over the wood shavings) yet I was sorry that the spectacular work in the Flash banner wasn’t available.
I’m not pointing a finger as this particular website. Considering the impact on social media when creating Flash banners is a very new issue.
The lack of a compelling, or at least pertinent, image will could a direct impact on the number of clicks your shared link may receive.
It is an issue though and I’m often surprised at websites which don’t even have a logo
Flash, Social Media, and the Importance of the Shared Thumbnail
Poor Flash. Its gotten a bad rep over the last few years. Hailed as a fabulous tool for improving the online multimedia experience – there seem to be more reasons not to use it than reasons to use it. (The first items on my list aren’t anything new).
Flash is Bad for SEO and Accessibility)
A lot of people adopted it to give their sites “a little bit of edge and movement” but in the process hid their most important content entirely from search engines and site readers in much the same way that putting phone numbers and addresses in images completely buried their content. People have been cautioned to take their critical content out of Flash for years.
Not visible on iPhones and iPads
Apple decided not to support the technology on its products based on the fact that it is a proprietary technology. As some one who depends upon both quite a bit, I think site designers and owners should take this seriously. Imagine this scenario. A couple is searching for a home and while driving around is looking up listings using their iphone or ipad. If the local Realtor’s® website is built in Flash the listings won’t be seen. A lot of local Realtor® sites are in Flash – luckily larger companies know better.
Social Media
Today’s post was prompted by my attempt to put a facebook link to a Museum of Bird Carving in Maine. The carvings are spectacular and I wanted to share them with my friends. As you are no doubt aware facebook allows you to embed a thumbnail with your post based on the images that are coded into the page you are linking to. One is chosen automatically but you can select another if more than one exists.
The thumbnail image is really what attracts people to check out the link. Its visual.
My first attempt was to link to the home page. Unfortunately my only thumbnail choice was the image of wood shavings. I decided to select the Collection page instead. This gave me the option of selecting the image of the bird with the fish in its mouth (a vast improvement over the wood shavings) yet I was sorry that the spectacular work in the Flash banner wasn’t available.
I’m not pointing a finger as this particular website. Considering the impact on social media when creating Flash banners is a very new issue.
The lack of a compelling, or at least pertinent, image will could a direct impact on the number of clicks your shared link may receive.
It is an issue though and I’m often surprised at websites which don’t even have a logo
from → flash + actionscript, internet commentary, web design