Macromedia Flash the only winner in US election

SOME OF US really, really hate flash. Our Wendy Grossman wrote at length about our love-hate relationship with Macromedia's darling. I for one, specially hate it when some webmasters decide that "HTML is not good enough" and code entire sites in Flash. Specially annoying are forms done in Flash, because, among other annoyances, once you have loaded a flash applet you can't "bookmark" a given position and return to it, once you are within the flash content's workflow, that's it, it's a "closed box", with only the "entry URL" as point of reference.

Most Flash authors prefer to create a "monolithic" big fat flash embedded object, rather than a set of different flash files linked together and with different urls as you move along.

Having said that, perhaps this presidential election will go down in history as the first one where Macromedia Flash was widely used for reporting the progress of the election count with Flash based "interactive maps". Some had nice animations, some were simple, and in one case... they were done in *shock* DHTML *shock*. Yes, you can do animated "mouse-over" interactive maps with DHTML, and ABC News did just that.

That, in my opinion, probably speaks volumes about the lack of decent, powerful and user-friendly DHTML tools comparable to the Flash authoring applications, more than about the technical merits of Flash for interactive maps. But in any case, Flash allows complex sounds and animations, as JibJab's animations showed. But certainly one doesn't need a lot of sound to create mouse-over maps, or do you?.

In any case, Flash was the clear winner on November two. Those of us who surf with Flashblock or other flash blockers quickly found out that all major sites decided to use Flash for their "interactive" maps this year: the BBC, CBS, the NY Times and Fox News.

If you were Flash impaired, however, ABC News was your only option among major news media sites. Well, at least if you enjoyed nervously moving your mouse pointer above colourful red-and-blue maps.

Here's a short view of the use (and in one case, lack of use) of Macromedia Flash by some - not all - the major news sites:

The BBC's Flash-based interactive map. One of the most elaborate and elegant, even with zoom and smooth scrolling. I admit this couldn't be easily replicated with just DHTML and without something like SVG.

The French at TV5 had the most colourful Flash-based animation but while flashy, it lacked real numbers and stats.

ABC News, the only site which decided they could do the same with standards compliant DHTML.

CNN's State-by-State Flash-based maps, as well.

CBS news' less attractive, but still flash-based map.

Fox News' Flash based map, on the site's main page on the election night.

The NY Times' "Flashy" map.

This is the informational page supplied by the NY Times to "Flash impaired" people (or those like myself with Flashblocker enabled). Luckily loading the Flash applet was just a click away.

Do you think news sites should stick to standard html (or DHTML) to supply information to visitors? Nobody questions the use of Flash based "rich media" to deliver ads, as sites like Salon.com have proved its suitability for that purpose. But really, is there any need to do mouse over maps with Flash? µ