I don't see Flash as the future, at least not for me. 3 years ago I started dabbling in Flash since I loved the effects I could get. But after a while (and making my main site in Flash) I realised it takes a lot to load, people might not have it installed and some won't nstall it for my sake and it's not a good idea for SEO.

Now I don't use it anymore. I have content driven sites and I make efforts to that SE can get as much content as possible. For an offline presentation I'd use flash, but I don't find it useful for my online sites.

>>Is Flash the Future?

Define “future�. The questions states:

>>Flash seems to be the best at integration of audio, video, and visual effects.

That is very true.

>> Now with Adobe and it's resources in charge will there be no stopping Flash at becoming the leading web tool.

The leading web tool for integration of audio, video and visual effects that is. I share that prediction. Flash won the fight with Java for the “web animation� plugin and has been the leading tool for a while.

But, if your question is if it will replace HTML (or xHTML in the following years), then no, that is not going to happen nor is Flash trying to achieve that.

Audas,

I have to say I pretty much disagreed with everything you said, starting with you calling Ajax “for laughs�.

The web is what people want it to be, and people want information. Fancy graphics are a nice bonus but not the main thing. Flash is a good tool but it offers in no way a better browsing environment than regular HTML and other W3C standards. I don’t think anybody would want their documents to be animated. These days more and more people are disabling Flash in their browsers to avoid advertisements and unnecessary smoke and mirrors.

Bottom line, Flash on the web is here to stay because it fills the void for animation/multimedia as a plugin; but it is only that, a plugin. Are there other uses for Flash? Certainly, but not on the web.

I forgot to make my point about AJAX:

AJAX is basically a window to move information on the web without having to navigate the page. This opens a whole new world of possibilities that will let the web borrow ideas from desktop software where interaction with the user doesn’t require a page to “reload�.

We are going to start seeing more interfaces that respond to clicks without reloading the page, documents being served faster, searches that happen in the background before we finish typing the query, registration forms that are easier to fill and validate, etc; an overall better experience for the visitor and more power for the developer.

The acceptance of AJAX has grown so large that IE7 removed the HTTPRequest object from the list of ActiveX components and now supports it natively (so that it works even when ActiveX components are disabled).

Here are a couple of excellent articles from a friend of mine that illustrate the power of AJAX and how simple it is to use it:

- Introducing AJAHT
http://www.expertsrt.com/tutorials/Rod/ajaht.php

- Reading Files With JavaScript
http://www.expertsrt.com/tutorials/Rod/JSread.php

AJAX is simply a set of technologies that already existed, but was brought together and marketed in a different way. The same could be said for DHTML when that was the big thing.

Personally, I think the AJAX technologies have infintely more scope than Flash, but it would be foolish to ignore what Flash can do. When used sparingly, it can make an other wise dull site look very slick and professional.

AJAX is better if you want to embed functionality / create web applications.

Also, I don't approve of sites being created entirely in Flash. They can be hard to manage and slow.

Well, even you can do all flash development in java script with single language AFLAX.

It's safe to say ... yes it will be the future of web tv.
Take a closer look on the adobe shares !!

Flash is 1998