The Flash we talk about here is not the program developed by Adode but a movie format.

Flash is the abbreviation of Future Splash and was launched firstly in 1995. It is the name of the special files or movies that normally created by Flash developed by Adode. Similar to Java, Macromedia Flash is another technology that allows animations, interactive forms, games and other jazzed-up features to be embedded in web pages. In fact, Flash is the most commonly installed plug-in on the web, more common than QuickTime.

The movies are added to web pages just like pictures or other extras, like Java. When the page is sent from a web server to a browser, like Internet Explorer, Opera or Netscape Navigator, the movie file is sent too. Web designers love Flash movies because they can have moving pictures, games, and interactivity on pages that download in a reasonable amount of time. Flash has become the most common way to add cool extras to websites.

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 interactivity built into them, which is popular for online games and special effects on web pages.

A special program, called the Flash Player, reads these movie files and displays them properly inside the web pages.

The Flash player is a plug-in, a program that adds extra functions to your web browser. You don't need to start it specially as your browser does that automatically when you visit a site that uses Flash.

So when someone says 'you need Flash' to view this site, what they actually mean is that you need a copy of the Flash Player installed on your computer.

Sometimes those who build websites don't think much about the people who will actually be visiting their sites.
They forget that lots of us still have old computers, slow dial-up connections to the net and little patience for web pages that take ages to display.

The biggest problem with Flash is that it can make sites hard to look at and slow to download if it's used too much.
Some sites have just gone crazy using Flash. Because Flash has a relatively small file size for an animation, some sites have used Flash animations that are just enormous.

As a result - they take forever to download. And unless you have broadband, waiting for even a 50 kilobyte page to download can be very frustrating indeed. Often you can skip through the Flash elements of a site. Look for a button that says 'skip', which will appear even while the rest of the movie is being downloaded.