Recently I found this quote on an online marketing agency's blog: "Macromedia Flash is the key to making your websites look funky."

It really got me wondering. Why do you want to make your website look funky? And more importantly, what's the ROI on funky?

I'm no great fan of Flash. It has its place and I believe it can improve the ROI of a website. But only if it offers something that's both useful and efficient.

Most of the Flash I see is gratuitous "show business" and does a website more harm than good. I fully endorse Gerry McGovern's acerbic observation: "What is a Flash intro except a fourth rate TV ad by someone who knows that they will never get the chance to do a real TV ad?"

I think the main reason Flash remains so popular is that many website owners are still under the misguided impression that their website will be better if it looks "funky". And their web developers/agencies don't know enough about what makes a successful website to advise them otherwise.