Adobe Flash Player is the standard for delivering high-impact, rich Web content. Designs, animation, and application user interfaces are deployed immediately across all browsers and platforms, attracting and engaging users with a rich Web experience.

HTML is ideal for creating static websites where text and images are placed at fixed positions.

But it doesn't really support dynamic sites, where text, images, and animations are moving around on the screen.

Traditionally, these effects were achieved with animated GIF images or java applets.

In Flash, you can control the animations. For example, you can make the animation stop and wait for the user to click a button. And when the animation starts again it can be dependant on which button was clicked.

Similar to Java, Macromedia Flash is another technology that allows animations, interactive forms, games and other jazzed-up features to be embedded in web pages. Macromedia Flash Player is a well-known and trustworthy plug-in that users should feel comfortable installing. In fact, Flash is the most commonly installed plug-in on the web, more common than QuickTime, RealPlayer or Java. The Flash plug-in can be found on Macromedia's web site.

A bandwidth friendly and browser independent vector-graphic animation technology. As long as different browsers are equipped with the necessary plug-ins, Flash animations will look the same.

With Flash, users can draw their own animations or import other vector-based images.

Flash was known as FutureSplash until 1997, when Macromedia Inc. bought the company that developed it.