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Lack of multiple/unique URLs for Flash sites make me loathe external linking

In a current project in which I'm developing a rich UI to display multi-categorial content without leaving a main page (requiring some sort of multi-doc interface), I found myself having to provides a Links section, as per the client's request.  The hyperlinks would (surprise, surprise) jump right to specific pages within identified sites.  One of the sites was development entirely in Flash.  And despite being a somewhat deep site in terms of content areas, the remote-end uses so many Flash-generated scenes, it only ever produces but one URL - the main domain name. 

So, I can't directly link up with the site's desired "Contacts" area, because that region of the site is accessible only after navigating through a series of mini-movies and scenes via a specific sequence of clickthroughs.  Which really sucks. 

This isn't the first time such a monkeywrench has been thrown into a web project of mine.  It's probably good for that site's marketing, forcing a visiting user to go through some requisite areas before getting to specific stuff, thereby seeing more of the site.  But but not having multiple URLs certainly must be disadvantageous in terms of Google recognition.  And for people like me that just want to connect to a damn extrnal resource containing a phone number and e-mail address, it's a headache.

Posted: Jul 16 2005, 09:47 PM by guam-aspdev | with 7 comment(s)
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Comments

Eric Newton said:

ok here's another pet peeve of mine: complete sites written in Flash.

not to mention google's inability to index FLASH based sites.
# July 16, 2005 1:27 PM

Jason Salas said:

Hi Eric,

Yeah, I *think* Flash 5 *may* have the ability to embed keywords or metadata within a movie (I remember that option a few months back when I did a Flash project), which can be indexed by Google.

My take on the whole situation is that Flash, like any other technology or thing in life, is best used when done so sparingly and tastefully. Don't create an entire damn web site in Flash just because you can...and don't use a single Java servlet to control your entire site, and don't base your entire web app on a single DataGrid.

The right tool for the right job, ya know?
# July 16, 2005 6:14 PM

Jason Salas said:

# July 16, 2005 6:15 PM

mike said:

Jason, am I misunderstanding, or are you yourself producing content on your site that is not directly indexable/navigable -- ? I interpreted your earlier entry to mean that you were producing content dynamically, but it's not clear if you will provide a single permalink that will allow users to link directly to specific content ...
# July 17, 2005 6:05 PM

Jason Salas said:

Hi Mike,

My site's fine...it's the remote site that I'm supposed to be linking to that's developed entirely in Flash, but has a lot of content areas within it. I need to link to a specific area, but the navigation is determined by the Flash movie, not a unique URL. So I've only got one address to point my site to...which winds up being the remote site's splash page.
# July 17, 2005 7:50 PM

Dean Harding said:

I think Flash is good for presentations, or as a nice animated/interactive "brouchure" for a new product or whatever, but to design an entire site in flash is just silly.

Not only do you miss out on the things you point out (ability to be indexed by Google; ability to be linked to from external sites) but Flash is also not very condusive to accessibility aids like screen readers, or for allowing for good keyboard navigation.

Admittedly, most people ignore those features in normal websites anyway, but at least they stand a better chance to begin with.
# July 18, 2005 2:02 AM

weblogs.asp.net said:

419636.. Not so bad :)

# May 27, 2011 9:06 AM
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