Roughly a month after Flash 8 was released, I got my notification that the Flash 8 player is available in the form of a window on my desktop. As most of you are aware, the notification option was added in Flash 7. Advanced users can disable it, but it is pretty hidden.

I’m curious to see what this does to the adoption rate. Any guesses? Most Instant messenger applications use a similar scheme to good success, but I wonder if the average user really understands what Flash is compared to the IM client they actually engage in (There is a brand experience for IM, but not for the Flash player).

The thing that really surprised me though was that I got the message at all. Both IE and Firefox on this machine are running flash player 8,0,15,0 (I believe that is what ships with the IDE, but not positive). 8,0,22,0 is the current player but I still really only expected to see if for the 7 player. It doesn’t bother me, I’m just surprised.

About the notifier itself, I like it. It has information bulleted about what is changing that I think is a very fair and accurate description to the average user. You also get very clear choices of what to do. I’ve been incredibly pissed at the Viewpoint notifier that uses strange button names to try and trip you up a bit in the experience. For those that want more info it is available. Mostly I like the fact that it tells me that no restart is required. Overall the user if given enough info I feel to make an informed choice.

The only way to make it more usable is to make an extra button “IM son” for my mom.