The advantages and disadvantages of using Flash online.

Flash is a powerful web technology that achieves a high level of visual impact from the graphical point of view. Unfortunately, it is widely misused in web design. There are still many problems with Flash, especially related to usability and search engine behaviour; we need to thoroughly understand what those problems are before we decide to use Flash for our site.


As with any business decision, it all boils down to understanding what our target audience wants.



If you want to make a big impression from a graphical point of view, Flash is definitely a good approach. However, concrete evidence still points to the fact that most web users utilize the web to find information, and what they regard most important is:



a) quality of content


b) ease of navigation, and


c) speed.




Users also consider the web a highly interactive medium: they are unlikely to watch a computer screen for long periods of time without giving some sort of input.


Flash technology presents several problems that go against the way most people use the web. For example:


 Bandwidth and Load Time Constrains: Sites designed with Flash take a long time to download and consume vast amounts of bandwidth. Not all users have a broadband connection. Flash forces users with dial-up connections to spend valuable time watching the load bar, instead of getting to the information they want, fast.



 Usability Constrains: When you navigate a Flash site designed with a older version, the back button does not work: instead of taking you to the previous screen, it will get you out of the Flash site. Also, the standard colors for visited and unvisited links will not work, and users have no control over the text size they want to use.


 Furthermore, many times Flash sites go against the interactive nature of the web. Since Flash technology favors a "presentation style" approach that resembles television, users are many times reduced to mere observers that get bored after a while, no matter how good the graphics look.


 Search Engine Constrains: Although large search engines like Google now have some Flash indexing capabilities, these are still very limited. You will definetely have a hard time achieving high rankings with a Flash site. One option around this problem is to design a second, search-engine-friendly HTML version of your site. This, though, usually represents an unnecessary expense in both time and money, since in most cases the HTML version alone will get the job done.



Although few, there are some instances when Flash technology can actually be helpful:



a) When you need to show a presentation, for example a demo of your product.



b) To develop interactive games, like those found on sites for kids like Sesame Street, Nickelodeum, or Yahoo! Games.


c) When you want to dress up a minimalist site. In this case, a small Flash animation or banner embedded in an HTML document will not consume excessive bandwidth, will load fast, and will enhance the appearance of a bare-bones site.


Although Macromedia (the company that developed Flash) is actively working to improve Flash's usability problems (they even formed a partnership with usability guru Jakob Nielsen in 2002), issues like slow downloads and search engine un-friendliness still remain a problem. Until these issues are addressed and solved, you will be better-off by only using Flash in those rare instances when it actually enhances the value of your content.

7 Ways how to present web pictures faster.

1. Use .gifs rather than .jpgs. GIFs are smaller in size when compared to JPGs.


2.Use 'Height' and 'Width' tags for your images. So while page loading certain place is left for the images and visitor can go through the content while images are loading.


3.If you are using large images, slice them up and make them load as part after part. For this you can use img tags like HSPACE=0 and VSPACE=0.


Optimized image (gif format, sliced to two parts, with width and height tags, HSPACE=0 and VSPACE=0)

4. Use image compression software that reduce image size. Remember, the more you reduce your image size more will be the loss of quality.


5.If you have lot of images to display, then put them on different pages by linking the pages like 'Next Image >' or something like that instead of a long page with 10 images.


6.Use same image over and over again if you need a similar image. Like if you are keeping a big header graphic on every page of your web site. Then use same graphic to link to all pages on your web site.

7.Flash presentations, mouse overs, animations etc increase page download time. So if you can use html instead of these, go with it.

“Call to Action” on YouTube ads

YouTube launched a new feature for non-profit organizations called “Call to Action” earlier this week. The feature allow these organizations to place special overlay ads on their videos free of charge. These overlays can direct viewers to the non-profits’ homepage, where users can elect to donate money, sign up for mailing lists, and interact with other members in the community. And unlike typical ads on YouTube (which video uploaders don’t generally have control over), non-profits can specifiy exactly which page they’d like to redirect to.

To pilot test the feature, YouTube placed a video supporting charity: water on its homepage last Sunday, featuring an overlay encouraging YouTube users to donate money to the cause. In that one day, charity:water received a whopping $10,000 from YouTube viewers. Granted, the fact that the video was featured on the homepage clearly had a huge impact on the turnout, but the success of the new Call-to-Action ads is likely going to be a boon for many non-profits.

Also worth noting is that this is another step in YouTube’s shift towards allowing major YouTube partners to place their own ads on the content they own (before now ads have typically been contextual and sold and served by YouTube). In January we reported that YouTube was quietly rolling the feature out to major content partners, and it wouldn’t be surprising if YouTube extends the powerful feature beyond brands and charities to start including celebrities and politicians, too.

YouTube History

In 2005, three early employees of PayPal, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim found YouTube, which become the leader in online video, sharing original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.

Everyone can watch videos on YouTube. People can see first-hand accounts of current events, find videos about their hobbies and interests, and discover the quirky and unusual. As more people capture special moments on video, YouTube is empowering them to become the broadcasters of tomorrow.

YouTube received funding from Sequoia Capital in November 2005 and was officially launched one month later in December. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen proceeded to become the first members of the YouTube management team and currently serve as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer respectively.

In November 2006, within a year of its launch, YouTube was purchased by Google Inc. in one of the most talked-about acquisitions to date.

YouTube has struck numerous partnership deals with content providers such as CBS, BBC, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, NBA, The Sundance Channel and many more.

In March 2007, Viacom introduced its much talked about $1 billion lawsuit against Google and YouTube. In a statement explaining why they were pursuing legal action, Viacom stated that “we must turn to the courts to prevent Google and YouTube from continuing to steal value from artists and to obtain compensation for the significant damage they have caused.” The lawsuit was preceded by a takedown request from Viacom ordering YouTube to remove over 100,000 clips from its stable of networks.

In May 2007 YouTube announced a revenue-sharing arrangement called “Partners Program” to cut in some of its biggest pro-am producers on the revenue generated from their videos. Partners at launch included LisaNova and smosh.

In June 2007 YouTube launched local versions in Brazil, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the U.K. Additionally in June, Apple’s iPhone launched with a YouTube application, further extending YouTube’s penetration in the mobile market following its November 2006 partnership with Verizon’s vCast service.

Over the summer and fall of 2007 major announcements were made about advertising models for YouTube. In August, YouTube introduced “YouTube InVideo Ads”, a set of flash overlays displayed on the lower portion of videos. Advertisers are charged per impression, and the resulting revenue will be shared with the clip creator. In October, Google announced the inclusion of YouTube videos in its AdSense product. Site owners using AdSense can select videos from certain content providers, and ads will be served contextually as they relate to either the site or the video. Resulting revenue will be split between content providers, site owners, as well as Google.

In October 2007, YouTube announced a new service called “Youtube Video Identification” in order to assist copyright holders in protecting their content. With the service copyright holders upload full copies of their content to the service and complex algorithms are applied against YouTube’s library of clips to see if any match the uploaded content. Copyright holders can then either have YouTube remove the videos in question or allow YouTube to serve advertising along with the content and split the resulting revenue.

How to slove the problem "Cannot play back the file."?

One day, you want to convert wmv to mp3, wmv to FLV or any other video format, So you need to check the original file is right. But unluckly, it can not play. O, What can you do when you try to play a media file by using Microsoft Windows Media Playe but receive the following error message saying: Cannot play back the file. The format is not supported?

Generally, the error are caused by the following reason:This issue may occur for one or more of the following reasons:

* One or more Windows Media Player files are missing or damaged.
* You are trying to play a media file that has a file format that Windows Media Player does not support. For example, you are trying to play a .viv file. Windows Media Player does not support .viv files.
* The media file is damaged.
* The media file uses a codec that is not installed.
* The media file uses a codec that Windows Media Player does not support.


Then, how to slove the problem?

Firstly, you need to makes sure whether the file is supported by your Windows Media Player. If not, contact the distributor of that file to see whether a viewer for the file is available. Below is the file format supported by Windowa Media Player:


* Windows Media formats: .asf, .asx, .avi, .wav, .wax, .wma, .wm, .wmv
* Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) formats: .m3u, .mp2v, .mpg, .mpeg, .m1v, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .mpe, .mpv2
* Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) formats: .mid, .midi, .rmi
* UNIX formats: .au, .snd

Note: Windows Media Player does not support playing .avi files that were created by using the Microsoft MPEG4v3 codec. Microsoft supports MPEG4v3 files in .asf streaming format only. These files are not supported in an .avi file type. To play the file, you must encode the file again by using the original source in a supported format, such as the .wmv format.


If yes, the other file plays correctly, the original file you that were trying to play may be damaged. If you receive an error message when you play both of the files, Just remove Windows Media Player, restart the computer, and then reinstall Windows Media Player. Reinstall the latest version of Microsoft DirectX. Verify that you are using the correct codec for the media file that you are trying to play. Then try to play again to see if it is ok. If still not, maybe you need to contact Windows customer service.

ASF and WMV Files

As we all know, WMV file and ASF file are all the video format devolped by Microsoft. The difference between them? That are the file extensions and the MIME types. The MIME type for a WMV file is video/x-ms-wmv and the MIME type for ASF is video/x-ms-asf. The basic internal structure of the files is identical.

The Advanced Systems Format (ASF) is the preferred Windows Media file format. With Windows Media Player, if the appropriate codecs are installed on your computer, you can play audio content, video content, or both, that is compressed with a wide variety of codecs and that is stored in an .asf file. Additionally, you can stream audio and video content with Windows Media Services, or you can package that content with Windows Media Rights Manager.

ASF is an extensible file format that stores synchronized multimedia data. It supports data delivery over a wide variety of networks and protocols. It is also suitable for local playback. ASF supports advanced multimedia capabilities including extensible media types, component download, scalable media types, author-specified stream prioritization, multiple language support, and extensive bibliographic capabilities that include document and content management.

Typically, ASF files that contain audio content that is compressed with the Windows Media Audio (WMA) codec use the .wma extension. Similarly, ASF files that contain audio content, video content, or both, that is compressed with Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) codecs use the .wmv extension. Finally, content that is compressed with any other codec use the generic .asf extension.

Windows Media Video (.wmv) files are Advanced Systems Format (.asf) files that include audio, video, or both compressed with Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) codecs. By using a separate extension, you can install multiple players on your computer and associate certain players with the .wmv extension for playback of audio and video sources.


Ususally, the change in extensions was made to make it easier for an application to identify the content of a media file. A .wmv extension show the file containing both video and audio and it can be applied to APPLIES Microsoft Windows Media Services 4.1, Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.0 and Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 7.1. There are many chances for people to get access to WMV files, however, its file size bigger than FLV and sometimes we need to convert WMV to FLV to share our videos online or broadcast them.

Free Software Recommendation

Free video burner software

1.ImgBurn: ImgBurn is probably the best free CD/DVD burning tool available. ImgBurn supports a wide range of image file formats - including BIN, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI. It supports Unicode folder/file names, so you shouldn't run in to any problems if you're using an international character set. ImgBurn supports all the Windows OS's - Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista (including all the 64-bit versions). If you use Wine, it should also run on Linux and other x86-based Unfixes.

2. CDBurnerXP: CD Burner XP is a great software. Apart from CDs and DVDs, you can also burn Blue-Ray and HD-DVDs with it. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a Multilanguage interface.
Operating Systems supported- Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.

3. InfraRecorder: InfraRecorder is a free CD/DVD burning solution for Microsoft Windows. It offers a wide range of powerful features; all through an easy to use application interface and Windows Explorer integration.

4. Express Burn Express Burn is a free CD burning program that lets you create and record audio and data CDs under Windows and Mac OS X. This software has a great user friendly interface. To use it all you need to do is drag and drop files. One thing surprises me; well I don't know how far it's true; the makers of this software claim that Express Burn is the fastest CD/DVD writing program in the world using proprietary optimizing systems.

5. Ultimate CD/DVD Burner: Ultimate CD/DVD Burner is a simple and easy to use CD and DVD burning software package. It supports a very wide range of internal and external (USB 2.0 and FireWire) CD and DVD writers. Burn any data, copy any disc, make backups, create astonishing photo CD albums, and make ISO CDs with this very easy to handle software!

6. DeepBurner Free Portable: Deep Burner Free Portable is free, advanced, and extremely powerful CD and DVD burning package. It removes the hassle of making CDs, DVDs, and auto runs. Deep Burner Free Portable works straight from your removable media, whether it's a USB flash drive, compact flash card, or even a good old floppy. Burn any data, copy any disc, make backups, and make ISO CDs with this very easy to handle software!

7. StarBurn Star Burn is a powerful tool for grabbing, burning and mastering CD, DVD, Blue-Ray and HD-DVD media. Star Burn supports all types of optical storage media (including CD-R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, BD-R/RE, HD-DVD-R/RW and DVD-RAM) as well as a wide variety of burning hardware.
With Star Burn you can perform grabbing, copying and burning operations as well as advanced DVD authoring and mastering. These advanced features enable you to create DVD-Video content from custom video files, or compilations from other DVDs. Additionally with the DVD Splitting Wizard you can split DVD-Video discs into smaller parts and burn them to DVD writable discs or share them with the Star Port DVD-ROM emulator and watch DVD video directly on your PC

8. FinalBurner: Final Burner is a freeware alternative to expensive CD and DVD recorders. It allows users to produce professional data, audio, video disks and ISO images. Many types of media are supported, including CD R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD DL.

9. BurnAware Burn Aware allows you to easily perform the most common disc burning operations: write to all CD/DVD media types, including Blue-Ray (BD-R/BD-RE); create and burn disc images; write multi-session discs; verify the integrity of files; burn your compilations directly on optical media, without having to wait for hard drive staging first and much more.
Operating systems supported- NT, 2000, XP and Vista

10. Disc Master: Disc Master is a solution for data burning and backup for CD and DVD recordable and rewritable discs, from Corel. Fast copy CD to CD or DVD to DVD, backup files, create mixed mode, or enhanced multi-session CDs. Supports CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RAM.

More resource info, just go to http://www.moyea.com/resources