Flash is the web standard for vector graphics and animation. Designed for the web, Flash is used to create:

• beautiful and compact animations
• navigation
• interfaces
• technical illustrations
• full-length cartoons

Good points about Flash
Flash animations have reasonably small file sizes, so larger and more complex animations can be put online and downloaded reasonably quickly. They can also have limited interactivity built into them, which is popular for online games and special effects on webpages.

Bad points about Flash (Lets be honest here)
The biggest problem with Flash is that it can make sites hard to look at. Some sites have just 'gone crazy' using Flash. Because Flash has a relatively small individual file size for an animation, some sites have over used Flash animations and are just enormous.

As a result - they take forever to download.

And then there are sites that make you sit through an unwanted Flash animation for a minute or two before you can even access anything on their site.

Finally, there are the sites that just use the animations everywhere, until you start to feel a little seasick from seeing the whole page move all the time...

In short, few and smaller is best.

Put simply Flash is a tool
Like any other tool, say a screwdriver for example, it’s effectiveness is only as good as the skill, intelligence and know-how of it’s user, as well as the appropriateness of the task to which it is set. If, for instance, you needed to drive a nail into a wall, you could use a screwdriver in a number of ways, and it may work just fine. However, using a hammer, who’s primary task is driving nails into things, would probably be a better option. Any carpenter knows this. The same goes with Flash.