Flash VS Ajax

While writing up a target platform to build our secret final project, we had to choose between using Flash and AJAX. Admitedly, I am biased towards Flash being a Flash user for years. Therefore trying to be objective about which platform to use posed some problems. I therefore went out (figuratively speaking) to see what people thought. Some post on the Flash-Ajax War:

• Flash RIA vs. JavaScript RIA by Jonathan Boutelle
• Macromedia and the “AJAX Movement” by Adam Pasztory
• Flash is Ajax, or Flash versus Ajax, at the Ajax Summit by Marc Hedlund

Smells suspiciously like the MAC vs Windows war which has been going on for ages.

Seems like people are still scratching their heads or at least undecided as to which one is ultimately “better”. What I gathered in the end is use the right tool for the right job and use what you know best. Based on this, our project will be graphics and (possibly) animation/interactive heavy (something that Flash has ruled since the dawn of the web) and while I think AJAX is easier to learn than Flash, I already know enough of it to comfortably plough through most of the forseeable challenges to be faced.

This is not to say that two weeks from now we might not decide to switch to AJAX for some valid reason, heck, i’m reading about Flash and AJAX hybrids (wtf). But for now, Flash is the way to go, in my opinion.

Sure, AJAX zealots will hurl accusations about accessibility, search engine optimization, yada yada yada. But I realized that the decision on which to use is not so much up to the technology, but to the concept, audience, and ultimately the main goal of a project. Besides, Flash sound cooler than AJAX. hehe.