Mike Chambers: Flash and Web 2.0

I've been reading a great deal about Web 2.0 recently. Because like it or hate it, it is the future, which is probably why there is so little clear explanation of what it really is. Like all good fortune tellers keeping the assumptions open to interpretation allows a greater chance of success.

However in reading about Web 2.0 some technologies get mentioned heavily and other get completely side stepped. In all the discussions about the future of the web everyone seems to be turning a blind eye to Flash. I have to wonder why this is. A technology that offers so much in terms of rich user interface experience is getting completely overlooked, especially in favour of AJAX.

Perhaps people are cautious about the strength of Flash development after Macromedia have been bought out by Adobe? This blog from Mike Chambers takes a look at Flash and Web 2.0 and I think makes some good points about the strengths of Flash.

For me Flash offers a far superior coding environment for ActionScript than any development platform I have found for JavaScript, and is far more consistent across platforms. So why has a tool that can offer so much more than funky animations been so misrepresented and overlooked? Perhaps once the merger with Adobe is complete we will see Adobe pick up the slack and address what could essentially be a marketing issue.

Mike Chambers: Flash and Web 2.0