Flash Video Homepage
August 7, 2007 11:55 AM   Subscribe

Looking for commercial/business/corporate sites where a flash video clip starts playing upon loading the home page - and it works, looks good, isn't annoying.

All suggestions welcome. Thanks!
posted by andrewyakovlev to Computers & Internet (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I'm not sure such an animal exists. Works, sure. Looks good, subjective but sure. The problem is that people generally go to corporate/business/commercial cites to get information. They're generally *not* looking for unasked-for video content that starts up without their permission, sucking down bandwidth and clock cycles and possibly annoying coworkers with sound.

That said, if someone has a counterexample, I'd love to see it.
posted by Tomorrowful at 12:46 PM on August 7, 2007


Always an annoying practice to me, sorry.
posted by zackola at 12:58 PM on August 7, 2007


TombRaider comes close to being what you're talking about.

A lot of web sites for movies are like that.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 1:39 PM on August 7, 2007


I know of one, but it would be a self-link. My email's in my profile, get in touch if you want the link.
posted by lbergstr at 2:18 PM on August 7, 2007


A lot of businesses in the luxury goods market (fashion designers, 5-star hotels, restaurants, luxury condos) have flash websites with an intro. I personally find those sites annoying/do not work/do not look good.. but maybe their target audience feels the opposite way.
posted by alex3005 at 3:13 PM on August 7, 2007


I'm with Tomorrowful, but I'll add that a "skip" button can upgrade such a site from "highly annoying, close tab immediately" to "fairly annoying, maybe give it one last chance".

Think Tom Sawyer/whitewash. Compulsory video is annoying. Optional video is content.
posted by No-sword at 4:02 PM on August 7, 2007


I agree with Tomorrowful.

Flash "splash screens" or intro pages are always bad on commercial sites. The only people who can sometimes get away with them are graphic designer type people.

Something tightly integrated with the home page that doesn't interfere with navigation can be acceptable. It sounds like that's what you intend. It should not have sound, though; there's no easier way to tick me and a lot of other users off. It should be as low-bandwidth as possible, too: cheaper for you to serve, and less obnoxious for dial-up (yes, they still exist) and low-end broadband users.

The Virginia Tech homepage has a Flash-based news slideshow that isn't annoying. Then again, except for the fade effects, it could have been done without Flash.
posted by musicinmybrain at 5:42 PM on August 7, 2007


I am guessing that your question might be client-generated. So many clients want moving parts! Not annoying is relative. When I am in a hurry to find information for work, anything that slows me down or gets in my way is annoying. On my own time, not so much.

I found a few commercial flash uses that I rather liked, but they are for creative businesses, where I think there is a bit more leeway. Still, you were given so few examples, I thought I would float them since they might give you some ideas. This is an architectural firm and given what they do, I though the intro was rather clever. I also rather like this design studio's intro. Both examples are sites that are entirely built in flash.

I used to see so many business sites with flash intros - now, not so much. One thought I had was that you might be able to source some examples by running a Google search on "skip intro" or words to that effect since most sites allow an opt out. Good luck.
posted by madamjujujive at 2:27 PM on August 8, 2007


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