Ajax Vs Flash.....a one day debate

The Ajax View :

How is Ajax better?

Searchability ....for God sake why do u want to use binary files in ur site ;)

Generally web pages are more visible to search engines than Flash pages. Search engine referrals can make a large difference to the traffic that your web-site generates. It is possible to extract the text of a Flash app for search engine indexing. In addition Google and other search engine manufacturers can index .swf files natively. However despite these measures .swf files tend to be less visible to search engines.

Openness

Although the swf format is a published format and there is a significant open source community there appears to be no such thing as an open source Flash player as a result of Macromedia's licencing programme. Developers with a bias towards more open systems and corporations that do not wish to depend on a third party or potential competitor may wish to avoid use of Flash.

Cost

The cost of the Flash development environment can be an issue. $700 may be a significant investment for smaller design shops. Corporations with bureaucratic purchasing departments (if that's not a tautology) may have issue with any price other than $0. At $0 tools can come in under the radar.

There are cheaper alternatives to flash like Swish and free alternatives like Lazlo, however these options may not allow the full power of Flash.

Accessibility

Ajax applications default to following the font and colour settings of their environment were as Flash applications use developer specified settings. This can make it harder for disabled users. In addition environment provided helps like screen readers, acceleration keys and so on may not be available to users of Flash applications. A fully accessible site can be created using Ajax.

Security

Web applications without Flash are often trusted more than their Flash cousins for several reasons.

• Flash is most commonly used in visually distracting advertisements
• It is used as way around pop-up blockers
• It can be used to create immortal cookies.

Ref : http://getahead.ltd.uk/dwr/ajax/ajax-flash-compared

As a result many users use Flash blockers to control their web experience or approach Flash websites with an initial negative bias.

I do agree that flash does provide very rich UI (at very high bandwidth consumption though), but take a look at this site :
http://www.amazon.com/gp/cyo/cyo-state-manager.html/002-3238204-3493664?ie=UTF8&sequenceStep=step1&pipelineID=cyor&sequenceID=sequence1

Also note,

" India broadband penetration is very low. Despite efforts to roll out the infrastructure, urban India has only a 3 per cent adoption rate among its top three socio-economic classes (SECs)," the report said, pegging South Korea, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, Sweden and metropolitan China in the high broadband penetration category.

It said despite the perception that the US was an across-the-board technology leader, only 39 per cent of Americans have broadband. The report placed the US in a second tier along with the UK, France, and Australia.

"In Western Europe, 21 per cent of German and Italian consumers have broadband access, with Spain close behind at 19 per cent. Eastern European investor-darling Poland trails behind with a 12 per cent adoption rate, reflective of its developing nation status," the report said.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/05/05/stories/2006050504340900.htm

So see, this is not a full "broadband" world :) and atleast 97 % indian cutomers have to "whine" on seeing a full flash website.

You might also want to check out what the "ad blockers" in the market do.

Do checkout this article from adobe devnet forum of JD :
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/jd_forum/jd023.html

What is Flash really good for? Banners and ads – it provides far more useful features then the traditional gif animation. Online games? Flash technology – the Flash videos - for video blogs.

The Flex View : (Harish and Raghu)

I am not an Ajax hater, and I also approve of many points raised in here against the SWF format. But my 2 paises on the arguments:

Searchability: Agree – Flash has some distance to cover here.

The Cost angle: Disagree

It’s like saying choosing Maruti 800 is a better option to buying Mercedes-Benz because:

· Argument 1: Maruti 800 is also a car, it also runs on roads and costs lesser.

· Argument 2: Mercedes-Benz is also a car, but godamn, it costs more.

Conclusion – Maruti 800 is better (bah!)

The cost argument is as absurd as this one. Want better usability, invest more. The market works that way always. If you don’t have investment potential, you will have to compromise on the user experience, If you don’t want binary in your site, you can type the “sad- excuse” fine print like yahoo beta application whose layout looks like a psunami hit coastline in mozilla / firefox 1.0 J Ajax is like taking cycle rikshaw for transport against a Limousine (Read Flex.) Both are modes of transport, but…

Ajax is cool – as long as it is blue text on white background (courtesy GMAIL) (It is a irradical argument, but just in the same tone of your forward J)

Now – a small proof for How better Flex is over any off the shelf Ajax framework:

See this (http://examples.adobe.com/flex2/inproduct/sdk/flexstore/flexstore.html) and this(http://www.backbase.com/RUI/shop.html)

Cost of Flex SDK – 0$
Cost of Flex Builder (Based on eclipse) - $499
Cost of Flex Charting (yeah, we mean full fledged, kickass charts) - $300

Total - $799

Backbase Ajax:

$8,583.25 – without maintainance

$ 10,299.90 – with maintainance

(remember , all this for some javascript libraries!)

Oh sure, we are saving a lot of money, unfortunately for you, Flex is cheaper, Much much cheaper.
(For the free Ajax frameworks, God help the developers to write the components!)

Now, Flex 2.0 SDK costs 0$ too – just for your information.

Addendum: Swish is a small text animation generator and NOT a replacement for Flash. It beats me as to how a mere text animator can be a replacement to an un challenged animation monster like Flash. Open lazlo is good, but is dead if flash player decides to screw it.

Accessibility: Disagree

ALL flex components are accessible. Detractors are encouraged to read the Flex documentation before alleging.

Security: Neutral

There are security shortcomings in flash security model, but one noteworthy thing is the advances that flash player has had in tightening its security model from player 5.0 to player 9.0. Flash player 9.0 is definitely a very secure plugin.

• Saying “Flash is most commonly used in visually distracting advertisements” sounds like saying “Batteries are used in making time bomb remote controls”. I fail to understand how it is a short coming of Flash as a platform.
• It can be used to create immoral cookies – So can javascript, so whats the big deal?

Bandwidth problem:

Refer to the maruti – Mercedes example. J

On a serious note, All of us agree we must develop applications which define the future. There are several concepts like incremental loading in flash which makes a flash application work faster then legacy apps. Lack of knowledge of developers on this concept cannot be blamed on the technology itself. I am sure you will agree. J

What is Flash really good for? - Well, everything that HTML, Javascript, Ajax and other assorted technologies cannot achieve and dream to achieve. Also, remember, there is nothing that you cannot do in flex that Ajax can do. (Okay can’t search - but other than that, literally EVERYTHING is possible. Now if you say searching is a BIG shortcoming, its like saying I would not buy a bike because it requires fuel, so my bicycle is betterJ)

Last but not the least, Flex is NOT a competitor for AJAX, rather these two technologies vastly compliment each other. Adobe’s Flex- AJAX Bridge is a great example. Also see how these technologies has their strengths and how companies leverage both in applications like yahoo finance and Google finance where the charting part is completely flash player based.