Flash began its career humbly as a great tool for adding low-bandwidth animations to websites. Since those hallowed days, the application has grown by leaps and bounds! Yes, Flash can still animate, but it can also be used to create amazingly complex, interactive products, dynamic and data-driven websites and online applications, cartoon serials, online (and offline) games, music videos, music players, instant messengers…the list goes on and on. Flash has evolved from "simple animator" to "multimedia authoring juggernaut" in no less than 7 years. In fact, it would be hard to imagine the Internet today without Flash and what it offers to the world of interactive digital media.

As one of the most popular and versatile applications for creating digital multimedia, Flash continues to wear many hats. Flash has always been at the cutting edge of technology for delivering compelling animated content. As a vector-based medium, Flash is also able to deliver the goods at a fraction of the bandwidth required by other animated media. What many people don't realize is that Flash can do much more than simply create bandwidth-efficient vector animation. As the application continues to evolve, its scope broadens more and more. Flash is now one of the most flexible interactive digital-media authoring tools available, offering the capabilities to run not only on the Internet and desktop computer platforms, but on game consoles and mobile devices as well. It is truly multimedia.

To get a sense of Flash's true identity, it's helpful to become familiar with its historical lineage, makeup, and current applications.