I am writing this post as I listen to Glass Tiger’s “Someday.” (I had to confess. My iPod has quite an eclectic playlist. Don’t worry it is not all 80’s.)

Okay, back on topic. I love Flash. I love checkin’ out sites that are pushing the envelope with it. It is a breathe of fresh air amongst all the motionless, brochure-ware sites that dominate the Web. I like animation—when used appropriately. I even like some sound—not that over-used, repetitive techno loop—but appropriate sounds effects and feedback.

I would love to design and build all-Flash sites! There just plain cool.

But, I don’t.

I don’t build all-Flash sites because…

It breaks your browser. No, I don’t mean it trashes it beyond repair or gives your browser some kind of virus. Visit another site and it will be back to normal. It just causes your browser to feel broken while you’re on the Flash site. For example, your back button won’t work, or worse, will kick you out of the site entirely! That is because the actual Flash content is usually on a single HTML page. Even after several clicks, you are still on the same “page.” If this is the first page in your browser window the back button simply won’t work. If you just came from another site, then you will go back to that one. Forward won’t work either. Neither one are good or expected results.

Not only do the back and forward buttons not work, but try printing a “page” from a Flash site. You may get something out of your printer, but rarely what you would expect. But hey, you’re living the paperless life and wouldn’t think of printing anything anyway—you would just bookmark it.

Sorry, that’s not going to happen either.

You can bookmark the page that holds the Flash, but not the “page” that you navigated to after ten minutes into the site. You can’t even copy and paste the Web address in an email to a friend. If you do, they end up at the home page and you have to tell them how to get there.

Forms won’t be autofilled from your browser even if you have set it up to do so. I could go on, but suffice to say, Flash breaks the browser.

For some things this won’t matter, but you need to know this going into it and make an educated decision. Also, before anyone has the chance to email me, I know that there are work-around techniques to get fix some of these issues, and good Flash developers use them. But, most do not. And where things take more time, it means more money. You have to decide, “Is it worth it”?

It affects usability. It makes the site harder use. You can’t tell where you have been as there are no “visited” links as in HTML. The same-page search feature available in most browsers will not work. It most often introduces a variety of non-standard graphical user interfaces. You can’t copy and paste (although that might be a good thing for some).

It is a cloaking device for search engines. Depending on the nature of your site, you most likely want to be found by people searching for information to which your site is relevant. I am sure this will change as Adobe has provided a Flash search kit, for those interested, but currently Flash content is just not indexed by most major search engines, rendering your site hidden in a dark hole somewhere in cyberspace. There are some work-arounds, but again these add up to more time and money—with mediocre results.

I would love for this entry to become obsolete as soon as possible, but for now, someday all-Flash, someday.