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Javascript vs Flash: Zoho Gets Real

CEO Sridhar Vembu of Zoho wrote an interesting article about why the Zoho suite is AJAX-rich as opposed to Flash-heavy. For those of you who still think AJAX killed the info-architect, it makes for nice reading.

Vembu prefaces the post by stating Flash is a great tool for other stuff (like ToonDoo, par exemple). But for the Zoho suite, the flexible nature of Javascript simply serves users better.

To start with, it follows good, clean web standards and enables native integration with the browser. There’s also tons of open source library support.

Frankly, Javascript simply isn’t a one-trick pony. You can almost always find a way to do what you want, or find appropriate add-ons, when you’re willing to stretch your muscles a la AJAX.

In a tech-verse that’s rapidly subscribing to the mobile religion, Javascript is also more mobile friendly. “Even when their Javascript engines are poor, it is easy to lighten up on the Javascript to offer a serviceable HTML client; the client can degrade gracefully,” says Vembu.

Check out Zoho Creator Suite Mobile and you’ll see what we mean.

Plus, the whole shebang just loads faster. Consider the laggage that comes stock with Flash-heavy apps. Eurrrg.

If you’ve got a minute, read the rest of Vembu’s article at the Zoho blog.

Recently, Zoho added an editing function to its offline Writer.