Flash
I agree with the above 2 posts. Personally, flash is a tool like anything else. You wouldn't use red font just because you like red. You use it when you need to express something. You wouldn't use your cell phone, when you are in your house and can call for free, would you? But when you are at South Beach partying, and clients call you (thinking you are working) you should use your cell.
The point is, use flash if it is needed. Presentations, etc. Skateboarding site may want a nice flash intro. Then on the HTML part of the site, it may have some downloadable or viewable videos with different skateboarding tricks.
I like to give my users the option. Same goes for PDF. I like to let them know before they click on a PDF link, thinking it was HTML and crashes their computer.
Use flash when appropriate. And try not to use them for menus because some search engines have trouble reading them and will not crawl your entire site. MSN seems to do a good job, but not the others.
Michael C. Gates
Send Large Files with GatesHosting.com