What is HTML5?

What is HTML5?

HTML5 is commonly talked about amongst web designers, marketing agencies, mobile developers, etc. You may find yourself sitting in a meeting with a web designer or developer and they start talking about using HTML5 or you may be searching for a CMS theme and find one that says “Built using HTML5.” In order to appreciate what it is, lets’s debunk a couple of myths. First, HTML5 by itself does not provide animation. Second, CSS3 and jQuery are not part of HTML5 although they are commonly used in conjunction with HTML5.

So what is it? Here is the definition given by the W3C, the organization responsible for overseeing the HTML spec, “The 5th major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).” All websites output their content into this core language called HTML. The web browsers that we use to surf the web can only read content that has been rendered via HTML. HTML5 is the newest spec for for the base language of the web. The reason that it is advertised so much is that this version allows for things like video and audio playback in the browser without Flash or other plugins, more semantic elements that more accurately describe the content that is in them, and new form features. This latest HTML spec has allowed designers and developers the give their clients cleaner and more interactive experiences. If your website is not using HTML5 Validator you should consider having someone look at it to see if it can be updated. HTML5 is beginning to help all of us be more creative and semantic in the websites and applications that we build.

If you have questions about this subject leave them in the comments below.

Thanks and God Bless!