In 1996, Macromedia released their product called Macromedia Flash which is a vector-based animation platform. With Flash, web designers were now able to create animations using a timeline and vector design tools as a video. Furthermore, Flash was and still is a great solution for web designers to provide visitors smooth view in such small file size. The only thing that web surfers need to enjoy the sites using flash is to install Macromedia Flash Player.
However, with the arrival of JavaScript in 1997, there has been a war between Flash and JavaScript because Flash was afraid JavaScript would one day replace them with all the animation it supports. Why? Because a ton of JavaScript frameworks are becoming increasingly popular as a result of their high scalability, performance and usability. Some include jQuery, MooTools, script.aculo.us, Prototype, among others but especially jQuery, as of late.
jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and AJAX interactions for rapid web development. Although you may have enough Javascript skills to build your own Javascript code, using jQuery instead of can simplify the process (think hundreds of lines vs. a few lines of jQuery). Furthermore, there are thousands of plugins for jQuery published and large community support for this project. jQuery deserves being the heaviest competitor with Flash.
