As a buzzword in 2013, HTML5 is something worth paying great attention to. For many people especially the ones knowing little about web development, the concept of HTML5 might be a kind of confusing and not easy to understand. As the latest revision of the HTML standard, it is gaining more and more popularity. Seriously, what is HTML5? Why is it so important?
It is necessary for us to know the basic meaning of HTML5. It is a markup language using semantic tags like video/audio, telling web browsers the correct way to interpret and display the content properly. Well, perhaps you are still at loss. By all means, HTML5 is the latest version of HTML. That’s it.
In 2011, Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) announced that HTML5 would become the official Web standard in 2014. Be it true or not, the undeniable fact is that HTML5 has been gaining wide popularity. Some well-known companies such as Microsoft, Google and Apple have decided to support the TML5, which has great impact to the development of HTML5 and make it possible to bring positive effect to the web design field. Apple is dedicated to adding HTML5 support to its i-devices like iPhone, iPad, etc, (click to see how to convert Flash to HTML5). In the meanwhile, Google is busy promoting HTML5 as the designing technology for all future websites it designed. All signs show that HTML5 is ready to offer users a better web experience cross all devices—smartphones (iPhone, Android), computers, tablets as well as various websites.
The reasons for the popularity of HTML5 can be various. When asked why it is important, perhaps the following four reasons would make sense.
1.As the next version of HTML, HTML5 has acquired many unique features which cannot be found on the earlier versions, significantly revolutionizing the way websites are designed and the way users view the webs. The key futures include but not limited to: Canvas for Images, Application cache, Video elements, etc.
2. More and more popular web browsers support HTML5. Currently, there are some well-known web browsers support most of the features offered through HTML5, such as IE 9+, Opera 10.60+, Firefox 4+, Google Chrome 6+, Apple Safari 4+. Apparently, the number is still on the rise.
3. Many leading web companies are offer strong support to HTML5. As talked previously, Apple, Google, Microsoft and other known companies are declaring their strong support to the development of HTML5. Besides, on August 7, 2013, Amazon announced that its Appstore was able to support HTML5 Web apps without extract coding.
4. A growing number of users are using smartphones to access the web. According to Google’s latest study which was conducted in the US, the UK, France, Germany, and Japan, “Smartphone ownership has jumped globally – increasing 11% to 44% of the total population in Spain and by 7% to 38% of the total population in the US,” said Jason Spero, Head of Global Mobile for Google. “Smartphone owners are always using their device – in France, 90% use their mobile devices to access the web every day.” So, we can see clearly that the growing smartphone use for accessing the internet has great effect on the development of HTML5. Ironically, a majority of those mobile devices cannot support Adobe Flash although Flash is being widely adapted on more and more websites. Relative info of HTML5 vs Flash.
While there is some unavoidable debate and discussion about HTML5, lots of developers are quite confident in HTML5. Well, anyhow, we don’t have a crystal ball, what we can do is to wait patiently and see what it turns out to be. Your thoughts?