[thelist] flash detection

Erik Mattheis gozz at gozz.com
Mon May 7 13:12:45 CDT 2001


>No. I didn't know you were 100% Flash, so perhaps the advice
>would be better directed at someone higher up the value chain.
>BUT if I had a Flash contractor who was able to tell me (as a consultant)
>"Actually, Flash may not be the best tool for this objective"

Actually, I did do that recently, and it seems I was wrong. It was a 
site for a small business in a super specific niche with insane rates 
for their services - to me every hit counted - they wanted a big 
(file size and time of viewing wise) Flash intro which outlined their 
process - I told them 50% of their visitors would never make it past 
the intro ... from the log files it appears I was almost exactly 
right, however, they had what seems to me a super high percentage of 
return visitors (to the Flash intro) and in that first month, the 
only place anyone could have known the URL was from reading ads in 
classifieds ... in otherwords, 100% "good" hits - they got two new 
clients through the site that first month - their goal was one.

And clarifying what I do, or like to do most, is stuff that 
integrates Flash with a database ...

>then my opinion of that contractor would go up a couple of
>notches, because they're looking after the best interests of
>the client, rather than their own rapacious once.
>
>I *have* worked with contractors whose opinion was "The
>answer's Flash. Now what was the question?" They haven't
>got any repeat work.
>
>Given that longevity in business is all around building longterm
>sustainable relationships with well-paying clients (the kind
>I work with), which do you think is likely to be the better
>strategy for a Flash contractor?

If it sounds like I'm saying Flash is the be-all and end-all of 
everything WWW you're reading that into it, certainly there are 
drawbacks which sometimes outweigh the benefits ... however, it's a 
demonstrable fact that Flash can extend the browser to display most 
types of information more efficiently (and in a more captivating 
package if that's important, usually yes) (and in a way that 
streamlines the development process if that's important, usually yes) 
than straight HTML.

Maybe most Flash people couldn't set a cookie or connect to a 
datasource to save their soul - but it's amazing what it can do if 
you know that stuff. Many of the perceived limitations (bookmarking, 
search engines, difficulty in editing content) if you understand the 
kind of things that are spoken of here - and it seems to me that it 
would be easier to come to that point by knowing the other stuff 
first and applying it to Flash ... I donno, I think some peoplew are 
missing out on something very very cool.

-- 
- Erik Mattheis

"Everything's better"
http://gozz.com/
(612) 827 3963




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