flash - a forbidden plugin? (please share your experience)

[marmotte]

hello everyone.

straight to the point:
i had recently an offer from a client asking to create a web site 100% done in flash (a big site). but lastly he's being very suspicious about that, because he had some echoes about the flash plug-in being (slowly?) a forbidden plug-in in a lot of companies: those ones having strict "laws"...

anyone give me more informations about that please...
- have you already experienced that?
- is it really a serious case? i mean, do you think that a lot of companies are applying restrictions like that?
- what kind of company does apply restrictions like that?
- what do you think flash can actually do to a computer/employee/company (except all the "distraction" factor, for example employees becoming drugged for flash games, money games or chat stuffs like *****hotel)?

also, if you have any interesting (and serious!) link to an article or whatever talking about that (in the good or bad way, i just need infos), please don't hesitate to share.

i already sent the official flash penetration percent (taken from macromedia's site), but i'm afraid it's not too much atm. i will also mention that flash is becoming so popular that it's spread now in video games consoles and mobiles... it should be a plus i think.

thanks for your advices, and any interesting info about that is welcome!

[>flashl!ght<]

I don't know of any companies banning Flash, but it's concievable. However, it's really stupid, because Flash is a trusted clientside plugin from macromedia, so essentially there's nothing malicious possiible with it.

[Naked inc.]

ignorance breeds...
censorship
prejudice
apathy
hate
violence

macromedia has worked very hard to educate.

i recommend you look for answers at the source, here are a few links.


http://www.macromedia.com/software/f...15_tech_wp.pdf
http://www.macromedia.com/software/f...oductinfo/faq/
http://www.macromedia.com/cfusion/se...erprise%20flex
http://www.richinternetapps.com/index.html

[PAlexC]

Most big companies with locked down desktop environments do allow Flash. Just don't expect the latest version.

[yasunobu13]

First, you need to understand your target user, is the site meant to be visited by people during working hours or to inform people at companies? My guess is that not many companies have the policy that you speak of, so are you trying to court the companies that do have those policies?

Second, does the site need to be 100% flash? I personally try to avoid using flash as much as possible. It's a good chance that it just happens to be the position that I'm in though, not a formal rule that I have.

Most of the websites that I put together are for people with slow connections that don't need fancy, shmancy flash stuff. Also, my boss is far too gung ho about having every web page include some form of flash, whether it be and introduction or something in the corner. His suggestions usually mean making the site look tacky or it distracts the user from the actual content (he insists on it even when the clients make it very clear to him that they don't want any flash on the page at all).

[Ask The Geezer]

An all flash site can not compete with a site all in html, as far as search engines are concerned. This problem is going away fast now that most engines and directories want money for a listing. Still, they do ranking mostly from what their spiders can get from a page, and with flash, there is nothing there. It's only fair to tell them that. Flash and html is a good mix though as long as the navigation is in html so the spiders can follow links.

[random_fool]

Usually companies who ban software programs don't do it because it's not trusted, they do it to simplify upgrades...

Knowing exactly what software is installed on every system helps to identify security holes for patching, and isolate stability problems when they occur. Single system images allow IT departments to reinstall workstations in minutes rather than hours...

It happens. It's common in companies larger than 1000 employees, but the good news is that those are the same companies who tend to whitelist internet access anyway (you can go to sites A, B, and C, but that's it), or at least heavily filter.

[darkstar]

in my humble opinion:
business to business = html
business to customer = flash or html
its a bit of a rough precis but i think it applies in 99% of cases.

[adit_ya_sharma]

I might not be much experienced in this field, but, I think most of the guys who own these "Business Sites" do not want to take risk with flash, 'cause probably, they still think that its only good for graphical buttons and banners, and all the client-server data connection/data transfer is better off done in html. I think by the term 'forbidden', may be he means 'I don't wanna take chances'.
Here's a flash vs html test
Another article

[gecko2]

I recently did a job for a company concerned with Boots, a big chemist-type-shop company in the UK, and they were unable to see the website as they did noy have the flash player on their internal computers. Why? Because of some security issue.....

[marmotte]

thanks for the infos so far

*writing the long mail now*