What Exactly Is HTML5?
HTML4 has worked well, but it obviously has a number of flaws. The team behind HTML5 has a certain high-level plan for the next step in HTML, which means that HTML5 must be built on the following principles:
- Less dependence on plugins for functionality.
- Scripting should be replaced with markup whenever possible.
- Device independence (i.e., available on all devices and providing the same end experience).
- Public development process so people can see what’s going on.
More specifically, HTML5 adds a whole bunch of new markup tags:
- <header> and <footer> tags to help you isolate the tops and bottoms of content blocks. Can be used more than once on a single page.
- <article> tag which identifies a specific, singular piece of content, e.g., a blog post or a user comment.
- <nav> tag to specify which sections should be considered navigational blocks.
- <section> tag that lets you define a generic section of content; similar to the currently existing <div> tag.
- <audio> and <video> tags to mark the inclusion of audio or video content.
- <canvas> tag that lets you draw graphics using a separate scripting language.
- <embed> tag to embed external content or applications into the page.
- HTML5 also deprecates some tags: <acronym>, <applet>, <font>, <frame>, <frameset>, <noframes>, and a handful of others.
The full standards specification for HTML5 is planned to be completed by 2014, but HTML5 has made lots of progress already and it can be used to implement site features even today. The full standards specification for HTML5.1 is planned to be completed by 2016.
Why HTML5 Matters For You
As a web user, you will benefit from HTML5 because it fixes the most glaring problems in HTML4. Web sites will have better web standards, which will result in more efficient content and improved performance. As HTML5 is adopted across the board, web pages should start to load faster, less bandwidth should be used, and battery life on mobile devices ought to last longer.
Plus, you won’t have to keep so many plugins like Flash and Java updated. I hate it when I constantly have to update so many addons and plugins across multiple browsers. And what happens when one of them is the wrong version? Sites stop working and frustration ensues. All of that should be dealt away with when HTML5 becomes the main standard.
If you’re just a regular web user and you have no intentions of coding or maintaining your own web site, then you don’t have to do anything to enjoy HTML5’s awesome features. All major browsers today support HTML5 to a large degree and you’ve probably been taking advantage of it already without knowing. Just keep your browser updated and you’ll be good to go.
And if you’re a web developer, HTML5 will make everything simpler and easier for you. If all goes well, you won’t have to deal with edge cases in web design since all browsers will need to adhere to the same standards.