Have you ever seen a scary movie from the 1950’s, complete with the most pathetic special effects ever created? You know the ones that I’m talking about, they have flying saucers from outer space that were crafted by gluing a camera lens cap to fishing line and dangling it in front of the movie camera. Now imagine the exact same movie made with today’s computer generated images and other special effects. That’s pretty much the difference between a plain introduction web page using basic HTML and a Flash intro.

In the simplest terms available, having a Flash intro to your website is popular because it’s not boring. If you had never seen a Flash intro, you would be completely “Wowed!" by it. If all you had ever seen was a Flash intro, and saw a plain HTML intro, you might not laugh at it (like you’d probably chuckle at the effects of a 1950’s sci-fi movie), but you might not frequent that site as often as you would a site with the latest Flash software. Why not? Because it’s just not as entertaining (or as much fun), that’s why!

If you’re not one of the computer-savvy website builders out in the realm of the World Wide Web, or a presentation developer at a Fortune 500 company, think about this: Over 90% of all computers in the world have Flash Player installed in them to adequately view websites and other mediums that incorporate Flash into their pages. This means that there is an obvious demand for this cartoony type of animation, and the demand is only going to increase.

Keeping all of this in mind, sales representatives find that using Flash intros to highlight the features of their products or brand, which encourages the customers to stay focused on the positives. Usually this works out well for the sales reps, for their customers usually get quite engaged in the presentation.

Other uses for Flash: Flash creates an interesting array of websites and animation with ActionScript (a computer program language), and has done so since the beginning days of Flash 2. Vectors and raster graphics add to the versatility of the program, aiding in the creation of a more interactive experience for all who choose to view or create with it. Flash is saved under .swf (small web file) filing extensions.