HTML5; the new cool
2010/06/21
The last decade, the web have more or less been made up by HTML4 and Flash. HTML provides structure to a website and Flash adds the visual dynamics – the ”wow effect” if done right, the ”facepalm effect” if not.
My personal relationship to Flash is cumbersome at best. There are a lot of reasons for this but the main ones are the lack of usability and the fact that Flash is not an open standard. It simply will not work if you do not install Adobe’s plugin.
Recently it became evident to everyone that Apple feels the same way, as they have chosen not to support Flash in any of their mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad. Whether Apple is entitled to be in the lead of this debate or not is a different story, but they do have a point. And they do represent a larger movement towards more browser native technologies on the Internet.
But how to achieve the ”wow effect” without the dynamics of Flash?
Meet HTML5. The next generation of the Internet. HTML5 is an open standard defined and developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. It is browser friendly, user friendly and SEO friendly.
Examples
The following cases are all using the power of HTML5 (and no Flash). To view them properly you should make sure to have a relatively progressive browser installed. Like Chrome.
Smooth background animation
Background gradients mousefollow
Draw
Google as a sphere
Google gravity (drag the items around)
Video
Note that this is only a small excerpt of the demo’s available. HTML5 does so much more than just add visual candy and interaction. For a deeper insight on the topic, read this preview of HTML5 from A List Apart.