Microsoft is still using Flash and not Silverlight.

Author: scott

5 Sep

Well it says a lot about Silverlight when Microsoft is still rolling out Flash sites (only targeting Flash Player 8, AS3 must be too tough for them ;). I know Silverlight is still in beta and obviously not ready for primetime, but I still find it a some what humorous, maybe you will too, maybe not. I am sure I will get flamed for this post, but isn’t that part of the fun of having a blog? http://www.syncmyride.com

I will admit they have almost implemented a nice SEO (Search Engine Optimized) Flash site. If you view the source you will notice all of the content is written in xhtml, the swf then parses that same xhtml and uses it as its datasource. I said “almost implemented a nice SEO’d Flash site” because if you turn off javascript the content is not displayed. Certain Search Engines will still parse the mark-up but others won’t. They should of made the site fail more gracefully and display the raw XHTML for those Search Engines who ignore javascript like Google.

As a side note, another thing I found interesting is they show an image of an iPod on the site next to their (crappy) Zune player. Understandable I guess since iPod is the number one portable music player. Microsoft isn’t going to deny that.

Filed under: Flash, Flex, Microsoft sucks, Technology

11 Responses for "Microsoft is still using Flash and not Silverlight."

js? September 5th, 2007 at 9:04 am 1
The content is hidden by css, so the search engine bot will see the content. (I think)
Scott Barnes September 5th, 2007 at 9:04 am 2
We use an array of competiting products both online and offline ourselves. Eventually you’ll see Silverlight become more majority on our brands i guess, but it won’t happen overnight.

This isn’t a sprint dude, it’s a marathon.

*shrug*

Scott Barnes
Microsoft.
ml September 5th, 2007 at 9:05 am 3
Stupid post.You’ve been flamed.
mike September 5th, 2007 at 9:06 am 4
lame flame there ml.
Silverlight is coming and you can bet that MS will try to force it on the web at every opportunity. Expect them to pay large sites to switch over and require silverlight. When it’s ready they won’t sit back and hope it takes off, and they won’t be using Flash on their sites.
ml September 5th, 2007 at 9:06 am 5
Ok well I know, it’s their strategy. But it’s not a war. Flash developers shouldn’t be angry and should stop posting things like that.First it won’t do anything, and second they should spare their energy and their posts taking flash further,to make sure it will lead the market.
Scott September 5th, 2007 at 9:08 am 6
I am not angry at all. This post was a little tongue and cheek, I knew it would spark discussion. If I had ads on my site I may have made a bit of money with this post…haha. I have played around with silverlight a little bit, not enough to consider myself an expert or even someone who knows enough to talk about it. After playing with it I know enough to question it. It’s scripting language is JavaScript which is no where near as fast as the compiled AS of Flash, especially AS3. Plus, using JS leads to cross browser issues and more development time. It is only a 1.0 (as of this morning) and will only get better. Again, which is a good thing for all of us. Competition only makes things better in any marketplace. No it’s not a war, it’s business which sometimes feels like war. Coke vs. Pepsi, PC vs. Mac, and now Flash vs. Silverlight. In the words of Wayne and Garth GAME ON!!!
jeremy September 6th, 2007 at 11:36 pm 7
Microsoft is still using Apache instead of IIS so this shouldn’t be a surprise
usome October 6th, 2007 at 9:08 am 8
This isn’t a sprint dude, it’s a marathon.
Scott October 6th, 2007 at 9:09 am 9
hmm, i’ve read that somewhere before?
mike chambers October 19th, 2007 at 9:07 pm 10
> I know Silverlight is still in beta and obviously not ready for primetime

fyi, Silverlight 1.0 is no longer in beta.

mike chambers

mesh@adobe.com
scott October 19th, 2007 at 9:29 pm 11
Thanks Mike, this posting is actually from awhile ago, Just today I launched my new site and my feed was updated so all of my postings appeared on MXNA again, probably how you found this posting. Thanks for checking in and congrats to you and your team, AIR is looking great!!