Re: Unilever pull out of using Flash after paying for a Flas

[Mark Hayhurst]

     I didn't see the program (I'll try to find someone with a video of it) 

     but the account of it on the beeb's website is neither tactfully 

     worded nor especially accurate factually.

     

     We do indeed have a very large intranet here with some staggeringly 

     diverse browsers in use (but of course big as we might be we're still 

     just a microcosm of the internet itself!). Anyone who's been on this 

     list more than five minutes will know that robust browser & plugin  

     detection is still not a reality and this is _one factor_ that led to 

     the situation broadly described. A more important factor was that 

     substantial amounts of javascript in a large number of concurrent 

     frames made even the then current browsers hugely unstable (and it 

     still does!).

     

     We have a number of teams here and dozens of different groups of users 

     - in my team we certainly see Flash as a terrific tool and a key 

     technology and we're incorporating it into our standards. However I 

     would concur that if I were rolling out a global site I would be 

     cautious - as well as plugin detection/installation in a corporate 

     environment you must also cope with (more and more) locked-down NT 

     installations. The improvement in the Java player helps here but it's 

     not quite there yet. The "philosopher's stone" of a catch-all 

     detection script is also proving rather more elusive than it should, 

     especially when, IMHO, AfterShock really doesn't cut it.

     

     My 2p worth - personal opinion I might add.


        Mark

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________

Subject: Unilever pull out of using Flash after paying for a Flashed

Author:

andrewalinet [dot] it

 at INTERNET

Date:    10/03/98 16:27



The huge company, Unilever, recently paid for the development of a Flash 

Web site by NoHo in London, but then decided against using Flash in order 

to cater for a lowest common denominator (including Netscape 1 !! and 386 

users) - paying again for a non-Flashed site. They also had to cater for 

Unilever India, which has a slow satellite link allowing only 3 concurrent 

connections.

     

May be Unilever is a special case, but I want to be able to counter-argue 

Unilever's decision to my own corporate clients who may question their own 

use of Flash after watching the UK TV program "The Net" (broadcast on BBC 

last night) which documented the problems faced by Unilever's first use of 

streaming media.

     

Any thoughts or similar experiences?

     

Andrew

     

     

     

     

     

     

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