It’s finally here, and it came with a more to offer than we ever expected!  It’s not ready for release quite yet, but it’s coming and you should definitely see what’s in store!  Taking the lead from our XML integrative efforts as well as finally aknologing HTML5 incorporates features like video and musical playback, drag and drop functionality, and more semantic tags than ever.

A couple of feature highlights:

• new semantic tags like: <header>, <nav>, <footer>, <section>, <article>.  Of course, you can also group these- like having a header inside of a section…  (Why?  think SEO- Spiders will understand your pages better with this kind of information)
• .otf and other font files rendered live on the server.  So, no more client dependencies on fonts.. and no more image headers.
• rbga: Transparency support
• native SVG support
• text-overflow: ellipses;  -Just what it sounds like- without the server-side solution.
• Column support -no more crazy wrappers!
• Rounded corners -you gotta see it to believe it!
• …and more!!

We found this great Google Developers video that helps to put a face to some of the features.  Try not drool too much, and ENJOY!

Flash is an amazingly powerful, visually rich format for web interaction and design.   It can give your site a real futuristic look, and seems very impressive to any audience.  But, there are dangers associated with flash under certain circumstances.

Flash and Search Engines

Search engines cannot read content that is posted in Flash.  As search engines search the internet for your request, they read the code that was used to program the site.

Flash objects are wrapped in an ‘object’ tag.  To a search engine, this means ‘picture’.  Search engines don’t read text inside pictures.  They just think that the entire object is one big picture.  So, any information that you might have embedded in that flash;  your companies’ services, products, contact information… is all now read as ‘pictures’.

So, you have a site about Acme Company.  Acme Company sells widgets and zoodads.  When your potential clients searches for ‘widgets and zoodads’ on the net… your site shows up as ‘pictures’… and you don’t get any natural rankings for it!

If your entire site is done in flash- you now have a great big expensive picture posted on the internet.  Bad news.

Alternatives to Flash

There are some great alternatives to flash that are available.  AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML- or -Advanced Javascript and XML) is a great solution for giving you dynamic looking tools and features on your web site.  The text that you put in is Search Engine readable and the tools available in this format are basically the same as those in flash.

What is Flash Useful For?

Flash is great for User Interfaces and tools that users interact with online.  These types of services are often only available to users through password protected areas and aren’t registered with search engines.

You can also use flash for elements of a site that are meant to be visually driven but do not contain large amounts of text-based content.   Photo galleries are an example of this type of application.

Also, as long as the content in your flash is repeated in text somewhere else, you can use it for small parts of an external site.

Other Notes

Don’t forget- flash and images both work the same way. Many sites use a lot of images that don’t have actual text overlaid.  Instead, the text is part of the image.  Again, you are loosing out!