steve40 — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 21:41:55 +0000

I second away with PDF (Portable Dump Files) also.

Busy — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 21:02:07 +0000

One thing I wish would disappear is PDF files, they are usually over sized, fuzzy, hard to read, always under sized (for reading), don't always print well, time consuming (to load and read as they dont fit screen sizes etc).

I've always had java disabled in all my browsers, and IE has a 5 year old flash plugin that cam with it, other browsers don't have it installed for them.

steve40 — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 16:32:58 +0000

Well maybe it's just more my wish, that it would go away more than anyting in reality. But I hate to stumble on a website where things are popping, whirling, and just generally bashing about. The most hated thing I can think of is the little woman, that says "go ahead and write anything you want" oooh I just hates that.

Of course these are just my personal opinions, and probably do not reflect a more popular one. But a diminishing lack of popularity, and support may take care of that. In the meantime, I will just have to live with it. Of course I have the option of not visiting those site, but I just hate to even stumble on one.

The Ape — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 16:28:26 +0000

Quote: I hate flash, java, and all this other junk, even damnable intro pages

Couldn't agree more. I have, in the past month, passed up 4 web design jobs because of flash. I told all of them that at one point i would have appreciated a good flash element here and there, but entire intros made of flash?! Sorry. I keep telling them that a majority of people will like the intro once, maybe twice, then they'll just pass it up. Then what are they left with... most likely, a lacking site because all emphasis was put into the intro. Anyway, sorry about the rant. These people had actually talked to me for days in some cases before they changed their minds and said, "we want flash", and i would have to say "find someone else."

I think flash will stick around for artistic purposes. As far as the corporate use... r.i.p.

Megan — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 15:13:03 +0000

I agree about the back to basics theme generally. You can see it in a lot of the newer designs that are being done. Cleaner, simpler, easy to use. I think google inspired that in a lot of ways, although web standards and CSS have had a big impact as well.

I don't agree that flash is going anywhere though. Using it for full sites might be on the outs, and especially intros, but there are things that it just does better than anything else. Interactive demos, animation (obviously), online presentations (there are a few tools out now that convert powerpoint to flash for use on the web, with or without narration), educational tools etc. I've also seen really well done band or entertainment sites in Flash that would not be the same in straight HTML.

The SEO implications in Flash, as you mentioned, are another reason not to use it for full site development.