What is the best format for Flash homepage with parallel HTML site?

Flash homepage

[gtate]

I'm doing a Flash website, with parallel HTML site for people without broadband and to help with search engines. I'm not sure whether I should have an opening splash pages which initially offers the choice of HTML or Flash, or to have a link from my Flash site to the HTML site etc. Most Flash websites that I look at don't seem to offer the choice. Is it possible to have an auto detector for broadband for instance that would generate a choice window, or simply redirect straight to the HTML site.

Any thoughts much appreciated.

George Tate

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[edited by: tedster at 2:10 am (utc) on Aug. 19, 2006]

[opifex]

flash can be pretty .... but generally worthless in my personal opinion and to my personal glee I keep getting jobs to re-work "pretty" flash sites that don't fulfill the expectations of clients. Your choice... i go html with java slideshows or gif animations for replacing the .swf files .... works fine, lasts a long time and don't rust

[Lynque]

Ahh the never ending flash debate...

Personaly I feel flash can be used in moderation when it comes to dressing up SEO sites. It offers a quality that gifs and other client side scripts can't even come close to touching.

That in mind, don't offer your users a choice. Make the site "smart", this has been around for quite a while now. Sniff out whether the user has the flash player or not, and more to the point, which version. Then serve content accordingly.

Colin Moock had a great sniffer but ceased development some time ago, instead Adobe offers this [adobe.com ]

I say use flash to enhance your page but don't make an entire site in flash if being crawlable is a necessity.