- Monday, August 16, 2010
HTML 5 is the next evolution of the Web and includes many more tags and elements for rich media content. In practice, HTML5 is starting to become a reality. Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3, Safari 3.1, as well as niche browsers like Opera and Chrome, have already implemented partial support but it will be a year or 2 before HTML5 is supported universally.
Many key players are participating in the W3C effort including representatives from the four major browser vendors: Apple, Mozilla, Opera, and Microsoft. A draft of the HTML5 spec was released in 2008 and parts of it are now showing up in browsers. At first glance it looks to be a programming language like PHP, but not so, it is still an XML based language.
The implementation of new tags and elements, a richer experience will emerge on the Web with some new features.
Embedded Audio and Video: You can create rich, interactive photo galleries by combining CSS 2D and 3D transforms with CSS transitions and use CSS gradients to add a highlight and/or shadow to your images.
Web Typography: Easier to create and maintain, downloads faster, and is automatically selectable, scalable, accessible to screen readers, and indexable by search engines.
Web Gallery: You can create rich, interactive photo galleries by combining CSS 2D and 3D transforms with CSS transitions and use CSS gradients to add a highlight and/or shadow to your images.
360º Product Views: You can deliver interactive 360-degree product views in your web pages, without a plug-in. By integrating touch events, you can optimize for touch-enabled mobile devices.
Improved page segmentation: Pages divided into several separate parts (i.e. main content, menus, headers, footers, links sections, etc.)
A new <header> tag: The new <header> tag (which is different from the head element) is a blessing for SEO experts because it gives a lot of flexibility. The <header> tag is very similar to the <H1> tag but the difference is that it can contain a lot of stuff, such as H1, H2, H3 elements, whole paragraphs of text, hard-coded links (and this is really precious for SEO), and any other kind of info you feel relevant to include.
A new <footer> tag: The <header> and <footer> tags can be used many times on one page - i.e. you can have a separate header/footer for each section and this gives really a lot of flexibility.
A new <section> tag: As with the <article> tag, it can be presumed that search engines will give higher relevance.
A new <nav> tag: Used to identify a collection of links.
iPhone and iPad users are exclusively using HTML 5 (not Flash) for rich media content. As per Steve Jobs, "the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards --all areas where Flash falls short." Every new Apple mobile device and every new Mac - along with the latest version of Apple's Safari web browser - supports web standards including HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript. These web standards are open, reliable, highly secure, and efficient. They allow web designers and developers to create advanced graphics, typography, animations, and transitions. Standards aren't add-ons to the web. They are the web. And you can start using them today.
Joydeep Deb is a Senior Digital Marketer and Project Manager with strong experience in Digital Marketing, Lead Generation, Online Brand Management, Marketing Campaigns, Project Management, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), PPC, eMail Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Technologies, Web Design and Development.
With an MBA in Marketing. IIM Calcutta Alumini. Lives in Bangalore, Karnataka - India.