The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the governing body for web standards, HTML5 being the most recent for delivering websites and web applications. With such an increase in the use of video, audio, graphics and animations in websites, HTML5 has extra elements to make programming this easier, and also to make websites more compatible with different browsers and search engines.
HTML5 allows us to build robust applications available anywhere and on any device with Internet access. This includes not only desktop computers and mobile devices, but also any place where Web access spreads in the future. The term “HTML5,” however, is rife with confusion. HTML5 actually covers a variety of technologies – not just HTML! The W3C recognizes the term HTML5 to mean a much broader and fluid set of technologies, termed the “open web platform.” This platform includes technologies for delivering improved performance, functionality, design, multimedia, data storage, and device access. It is this platform as a whole that people are generally referring to when they use the term HTML5.
HTML5, in practice, is a group of technologies that allow us to build robust applications that are located on the Web. This is in contrast to the simple model of pages linked to other pages, which dominated the Web for its first decade. A Web application, in theory, can offer the same functionality as any traditional software application, with the added benefit of being accessible anywhere with an Internet connection.
Until recently, such applications were only available on the Web by using proprietary technologies such as Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight.
While the W3C maintains a target date of 2014 for the specification to reach “recommended” status, many HTML5 features are available today, and indeed some have been available for years. A particular feature or technology may have limited browser support, but workarounds exist for backwards compatibility. Nearly ALL browsers support HTML5, inclusing those on OSX, which has no support for Flash.
On windows, using HTML5, even though not “ready” can get you around certain desktop issues such as a broken flash player when trying to use youtube.com (all videos on YouTube can also be viewed as HTML5 already). See this plugin if you are a Firefox user.
Netflix, the media streamimg giant is also looking to ditch its Silverlight-based video player for an HTML5 version that would work pretty much anywhere, on any device. This unfortunately may pave the way for DRM-like encryption in the standard, but experts says the functionality might as well already be in there, it’s just not approved.
But how, might you ask, will this benefit my design concept, my marketing strategy, or my life in any way? Technical stuff like JavaScript, Flash and DRM might not mean a whole lot to sales and marketing departments, but they do have a significant impact on how a website and/or Web application will be viewed by a consumer base and how efficiently a designer can achieve the look you want for your site. If you’re not a programmer, you don’t necessarily have to know all of the finer points of HTML5, but keeping tabs on new technologies will let you stay ahead of the curve and know how to produce the optimal user experience to maximize revenue. At least know what HTML5 is, and what it is not. Go read up on it, try out the demo sites, take extra notice of it whenever you see it in an article! It really is the next big thing on the web.
If you would like your specifically designed and built in HTML5, we can surely do this. If you are worried about existing Flash content on your site going stale in time, don’t panic, we can probably help!
