What is HTML5 and why should you be using it in your site?

If you are in the business of web design, you have probably invested considerable time into getting to grips with HTML 4.01. However, change is underway in the world of web design. Continuing to rely on HTML 4.01 is not advised, as all your competitors will soon be using the new and improved version – HTML 5. Fear not, you will still be able to use your in-depth knowledge of 4.01, by simply building on what you know.

Read on to find out why HTML 5 is going to revolutionise the marketplace.

Background

In development since 2004 and issued by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), HTML5 is the newest hypertext markup language for websites. In December 2012 it became W3C’s Candidate Recommendation, and now all the major browsers (Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and IE) support it.

HTML5 was created to facilitate easier coding, due to the imminent dissolution of many existing syntaxes. The new markup of HTML 5 was created to reflect significant changes which the Internet has undergone since 1999. As a result, HTML 5 includes the following features:

• New features based on the various upgrades of HTML, JavaScript, CSS and DOM
• External plugins to be reduced
• Errors to be made easier to manage
• Markup to replace scripting
• HTML5 to be independent of any devices
• A transparent development process which the public can access

Why should you be using HTML5?

HTML5’s Multimedia department contains many unique features, which allow users to use low-powered devices to run content-heavy vehicles. The syntactic features integrate vector graphics content and include many significant new elements. As a result, graphic and multimedia content handled in web design can be executed faster. In addition, the use of APIs or plugins is dispensed with.

It is crucial to remember that HTML5 is built on the success of its previous version, HTML 4.01, undoubtedly the best version for web design of its era. The upside of starting to use HTML5 for your web design is that the markup language works right away. This leaves you free to start updating or creating new websites that will work better than ever before. From geolocation to video, local storage to microdata annotations, HTML5 is something we can all benefit from using at the earliest opportunity.

The best feature – HTML5 is SEO friendly and recommended by Google as well, unlike AJAX and Javascript.

Some of the great examples of sites using HTML5 are:

Conclusions

HTML5 took a long time to develop because W3C had to analyse many significant factors and consider the future of the Internet as a digital marketing tool. They took their time and delivered a high-quality product that you should definitely be using on your site.

HTML5 is here to stay as the web design tool of choice. It is created to cater to today’s necessities and, as it is in continuous development, it will be able to sustain changes that will happen in the industry for quite some time. If you are in the web design business, staying ahead of the game is vital to your success; so make the change to HTML 5 today.