| Firstly what is flash? Well Flash refers to both the | | | | file extension and may appear as an element of a |
| Macromedia Flash Player and to a multimedia | | | | web page or to be "played" in the standalone Flash |
| authoring program used to create content it (such as | | | | Player. |
| games and movies). The Flash Player is a client | | | | Due to wide usage of Flash in web advertisements |
| application available in most web browsers. It | | | | and the extra time it takes to load these pages, |
| features support for vector and raster graphics, a | | | | tools have emerged for blocking Flash content in |
| scripting language called ActionScript and bidirectional | | | | some or all web sites, or temporarily or permanently |
| streaming of audio and video. | | | | turning Flash Player off, such as FlashBlock and |
| Macromedia Flash is the integrated development | | | | Adblock for the Mozilla Firefox browser. |
| environment (IDE) and Flash Player is the virtual | | | | If Flash has been disabled in a web browser then |
| machine used to run the Flash files, but nowadays | | | | users may be unable to access some |
| these terms have become mixed: "Flash" can mean | | | | Flash-dependent websites, or may experience a |
| either the authoring environment, the player, or the | | | | degraded user interface. |
| application files. | | | | Using Flash content stores the content of the web |
| Since its introduction in 1996, Flash technology has | | | | page in a binary file and since Flash uses animations, |
| become a very popular method for adding animation | | | | the design of the page is not static. These factors |
| and interactivity to web pages. Flash can be used to | | | | make Flash-based content unsuitable for indexing by |
| create fantastic animations; to design web-page | | | | search engines. |
| elements and also to add video to web sites. | | | | 'Misuse' of Flash software has led to the creation of |
| Websites made with flash can be much more | | | | a new industry term "Flashterbation," where the |
| interactive and flashier (pardon the pun) than site | | | | technology is used in a way that lacks customer |
| made with only html. | | | | focus. |
| The Flash files, or "flash movies", usually have a .swf | | | | |