It came from topLingo's blog ...

We’re migrating and so is the rest of the development world.

So I bite my own tongue by saying this, but it’s true …

“jQuery is killing flash!”

jQuery is a lightweight JavaScript library that emphasizes interaction between JavaScript and HTML.  It allows developers and artists to create animation and interactive features that previously “only” looked good in flash.

For example, a year ago topLingo handled ALL requests for eye candy such as homepage animations solely in Flash.  But now, we’re about 80% converted to jQuery.

Why the transition?

Besides the obvious reason that we’re a “B2B” development firm who focuses less on eye candy and more on usability i.e. a group who would decline the opportunity to redevelop BritnaySpears.com, jQuery pros versus Flash are as follows:

Small size. Lightweight means fast web page loading times.

Free. Hundreds of previously produced animations, transitions, are easily accessible.

Easier to learn. Have you seen someone’s face when they launch Flash software for the first time? Eek!

Dull elements look better. Visually enhances non-exciting web elements.  Boring forms are now slightly more exciting.

CMS synergy. In the example of a homepage flash animation, for the content manager to make updates it’s highly likely they’d have to produce a Flash .SWF file themselves or pay someone to do so.  It’s much simpler to code the CMS for jQuery modifications where the content manager can simply change a line of text or upload an image … and BAM! The homepage animation changes!  (Sidenote, and to be fair, this can also be done in flash but does take more development time/cost).

SEO, SEO, SEO. Text is text in a jQuery animation and the engines love it!

Aviary has an impressive suite of web-based software that is free to use.  They have built scaled-down versions of Photoshop, ImageReady, and Illustrator that run within a web browser in Flash (not Air, for the techies).  In addition, they have a multi-track sound editor that has the same core functionality as Apple’s Garage Band.  Although Aviary is pushing the limits of what Flash is capable of, their execution is outstanding.  This software suite works and works WELL!

Although these apps are lighter in features than their desktop counterparts, they are some of the most advanced web apps I’ve yet used.  All are incredible models of how web-based software should work.  These are the prefect tools if you have to do a little photo editing on an underpowered laptop or netbook.  If you’ve ever had to edit some photos when you’ve been on vacation with your old junky laptop, I’ve got the solution to your pain.  Photoshop on a crappy laptop just grinds your productivity to asnail’s pace.  But these apps fire up in about 30 seconds and you’re ready to go.  Working with large graphics files is nearly instantaneous because all the heavy lifting is being done on Aviary’s servers.

I highly, highly recommended Aviary as both a top-notch tool and an example of how to build web-based software.  Check it out here.

San Jose based Adobe Systems is a legend in Silicon Valley, most famous for their dominant Photoshop application. Adobe is also a leader in desktop publishing and has a strong competitor in online video editing as well. Now Adobe is stepping into a whole new world, the world of online Web 2.0 applications. Adobe has purchased Virtual Ubiquity and their online word processor Buzzword. This puts Adobe in direct competition with Google and Zoho for the online office productivity market.

Traditionally a master of the desktop, it shows a great deal of savvy and guts for Adobe to move into the online market. What makes this even more interesting in the Buzzword word processor is based on Adobe’s Flash technology. Adobe is playing up the benefits of Flash, saying it is more flexible and powerful than Ajax, which is the current favorite web 2.0 technology. Adobe’s AIR allows Flash applications to run offline or online, which will prove to be a critical factor as most web 2.0 apps do not work offline yet. The Zoho word processor does work offline but Google Docs does not.

A question everyone should be asking is, where is Microsoft in all this? As of yet, nowhere to be found. Microsoft clings to their venerable Office suite, continuing to bet on the desktop. It may be a long time before web 2.0 supplants the desktop application, but I am surprised to not see Microsoft at least put a toe into this water.

VideoJug.com an online video resource for expert advice and professional know-how knows their niche market.

Thier tagline appropriately reads “Life Explained. On Film.” and have taken a business model from the likes of Ask.com whose approach to competition is not to worry about the 800 pound gorillas (Google and Yahoo for Ask and YouTube for Video Jug) rather serve their niche markets to the best of their abilities.

In VJ’s case their niche is education and to date they’ve recieved more than 30 Million dollars in venture capital, staff 50+ professionals and have produced 20,000+ high definition how-to-videos such as “How to be the perfect girlfriend” or “How to fold a t-shirt in 2 seconds.”

www.VideoJug.com

I recently read a great article “2Advanced Studios V.5 Attractor Part 2″ from issue 126 of Web Designer Magazine, the one with the bad-ass red transformer on the cover. It covers a competitor of ours and their impressive implementation of FLASH DYNAMIC DEEP LINKING.

2Advanced Studios, located near us here in Southern California may be competition in the sense that we both build killer web applications however their work is much more targeted to the intense eye candy audience where topLingo’s soul thrives in great application back-end development. Of course topLingo’s eye-candy is appealing but we have neither the time or desire to focus 100% focus that direction. Regardless, they’ve always had our respect and reaffirmed by this recent article where they address Flash’s biggest deficiency to the user, “Letting the user hit the back button, and taking them where they were last.”

Dynamic Deep Linking is emerging into the limelight and technically speaking is the ability to bookmark pages and direct call internal sections of the website through custom urls. Keep you eye out for more on this one!

Welcome to 2007 and Happy New Year!  Lots of great opportunities in the web development world this year and just like each year before it some cool technologies and ideas will emerge and some will fade away.  And although personally I prefer to stay on the cutting edge of technology, the reality is that my business and my business clientele is about one or two steps behind.  Not a bad thing of course, in fact staying a step behind helps reduce the risk of investing into any unproven technology or concept thus wasting time and money.  So, with that in mind here are some things that we predict will be a hot topic for both our fortune 500 and small entrepreneurial clients in 2007:

• RSS Feeds
• Web 2.0
• Social Networking
• AJAX
• Paying more attention to the end user
• Online Marketing Tools
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Web Services
• Video in Flash

Take a lesson from YouTube and note that an ideal alternative to video formats quicktime and windows media to display on the internet is Flash. You’ll have less trouble with your audience having to download plug-ins, codec and compression conflicts and potential streaming issues if you embed your video in flash then post online.