The use of multimedia on the web is not always an appreciated idea as it breaks the text flow, increases the bandwidth cost, and annoys many visitors. But if used in a proper manner, it can enhance your website and give you an edge over your competitors.

The Principle of Least Surprise
One thing that must be kept in mind is that the multimedia must not be included somewhere where it is not expected, such as on homepage. There is nothing more irritating than to have an unwanted multimedia thrown at you.

Visitor should be given multimedia content only when it is absolutely necessary or when they ask for it themselves. It should be linked to text like 'watch the video' or 'listen now'. Also, they must be allowed to use the media player of their choice.

Audio on the Web
There are many web users who browse the web after turning off their speakers. There must be a clear warning asking the visitor to turn it on if they want to listen it. Now coming to the content, streaming the audio is usually a bad idea unless you are a radio station or you provide some live feed.

It is always better to offer down loadable mp3 files. If the file is too long, divided in into episodes of about 10 minutes. Take care to give only relevant and useful material.

Audio on the web is undergoing a revolution due to the introduction of i Pod. Pod casting is the practice of reducing the size of audio segments to make them ready to download into an i Pod.

Video on the Web
Videos on the web can be used for various reasons. They can be used to demonstrate products in action. Often, web videos are restricted to e-learning and news. The web equivalent of a seminar is known as 'Webinar'.

When you make a web video, some technical aspects need to be kept in mind. The Video content should be offered in one of the three formats, that is, Real Player, Windows Media Player, or Quick Time. The users must be given a choice between these formats but writing scripts for this is quite a difficult task in itself.

However, there is always a section of people that cannot view video at all. For them, important information must be given in text format too alternatively. You can also take screen shots of the video and put them up as images, so that the users aren't just forced to read a lot of text in case they are unable to view a video.