In April of 2010, Steve Jobs released a statement speaking out on why he wouldn’t allow Flash on “i” devices. There were several points he felt very strongly about:

1.    The web should be “open” and Flash isn’t. That means that there’s a company (Adobe) that controls what and when it updates. What if he can’t get them to do something when he wants it done?

2.    He talks about how Adobe says that 75% of all video on the web is in Flash, and then lists a string of sites that have posted “i” friendly videos including Netflix, Facebook, major TV networks and The Wall Street Journal. So, I suppose we don’t need to see absolutely every video there is, but what about the Flash elements that many web developers use for website intros, navigation, forms, image animations and the like? They still can’t be seen, and there’s a lot of it out there.

3.    Sometimes Flash can cause Macs to crash. The way I see it, if Apple expects everyone to get on board and make their software work for their machines, shouldn’t Apple do the same for them, especially with software that’s so widely used and accepted?

4.    Flash takes time to load, thereby consuming battery power. A valid point, but a well-done Flash site is worth the wait in my opinion.

5.    Touch. Flash used to be built with the mouse in mind. So we program it for clicking instead of rollovers. Solved.

6.    He said that Flash is a cross-platform tool, and the “i” devices aren’t its main goal. That’s true, but wouldn’t you want your software to be cross-platform? A lot of people run both Mac and PC and I’m sure would really appreciate if everything were available and functional on both. Not to mention the sales that could be made if ALL apps were available for “i” devices.

In the expansive world that is the Internet, the ultimate goal is to get noticed and look good when you do. Getting noticed, of course, is of the upmost importance and SEO is a key factor in this, but at what point should we allow a site’s SEO to start to limit its presentation and design? Well, if approached properly, you should be able to fulfill the vision for your site’s look while still getting plenty of attention and results.

The key here is to understand the buyer. Understanding your buyer will greatly benefit you in reaching them. Who are they? How do they use the Internet? What sites do they visit for information? And most importantly, how do they find you?

If you are an established brand, or users have seen you in other sources, the look and refinement of your site is of the greatest importance to further strengthen your brand. If you are already known, chances are there can be a little less focus on filling the pages up with “search terms” in the copy, and more room for further selling your vision through design and images.

Between HTML, ASP, .NET, PHP and all the other languages we’ve used to create websites, we can certainly create a content management system from scratch. But with the pressure of today’s deadlines and workloads, who has the time? When a client wants a system that they can edit themselves, looks professional or is primarily data-driven, you’ll want to choose a content management system (CMS) like Joomla!® to run the website. It’s faster to build, more reliable in code and can be updated by anyone who has a little time and the desire to learn the basics.

One of my favorite things about Joomla!® is that making changes to an existing page is considerably faster. You just log in to the administration section in a browser window, go to the page you want to edit, type your change in, save it and click “preview” to see the new page. The HTML/FTP alternative: Open your FTP client, find your website, log in, download the most recent version of the file you want to change, refresh your FTP client window, open the file in your HTML editor, find and make the change in the code, save it, refresh your FTP client again, upload the altered file, refresh the Internet browser and check your change. Seems a little tedious, doesn’t it?