You've probably already heard of HTML (HyperText markup language) and know that it's used to describe the data that makes up your website. When combined with CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) you can make all that HTML look pretty fancy. Take it one step further using JavaScript and you'll be following in the footsteps of some of the greatest interactive websites out there including facebook and Gmail.
So then what's this thing you've been hearing about called HTML 5? Basically this is the next version of HTML that offers some exciting advancements that will make the websites you visit faster and more interactive. So here's a breakdown of some of the features it supports that will likely change the web forever:
Canvas & SVG
Canvas and SVG are both new HTML elements that are already support by the latest versions of most browsers. What these elements do is give you the ability to draw using functions like lineto() and bezierCurveTo(). Canvas differs from SVG similar to how Photoshop and Illustrator differ from one another. So what's the big deal? Why do we even want this kind of functionality built into HTML? Here's a few examples of what has been done with this new technology:
For these to work you must be using a modern browser excluding Microsoft's Internet Explorer which does not support HTML 5 in it's latest release (version 8).
Bespin
Mozilla Labs has created a code editor using canvas. Using the same principles it's not hard to imagine the kind of productivity apps that could be created on the web.
Flot
Want to create fancy graphs online using standard HTML and "ajax" practices. In comes Flot which is a Canvas JavaScript API that allows you to do just that. Check out the example here: http://people.iola.dk/olau/flot/examples/ajax.html
Quake
So at first glance you might be thinking, "well so what if they ported an old game like Quake and made it run in a browser". Are you kidding me. Real 3D graphics running natively in a browser from a port of an existing game is a big deal. This demonstrates what kind of interactivity is possible right now inside a modern browser. It's not a stretch to think of the kinds of applications that could be built to run natively inside the browser accessible anywhere, anytime. The concept is incredible.
Video & Audio Tags
Particularly the video tag has been the center of a lot of controversy lately. With Apple refusing to support Adobe's Flash on iPhone and iPad many developers have been forced to use HTML 5 video and audio tags to accomplish the same things they did with Flash. While I don't blame developers and content providers for being upset at having their hand forced into this new standard I can't help but see it as a good thing for the web. While flash still offers a lot that HTML 5 hasn't achieved yet, it's fully and completely owned by Adobe making it one of the most proprietary platforms available. HTML 5 is completely open. You don't need to buy into any company or their products to develop for it and it has the advantage of being an open standard. This means that other companies can create new ways of using it without having to worry about breaking any licensing agreements paving the way for a what I think will be a new era of innovation on the web. Even YouTube has started offering it's videos in HTML 5. You can check that out here: http://www.youtube.com/html5. If you're a Mac user you'll be pleased that your CPU doesn't take on the extra load of running video in Flash!
If you're a developer there has quite literally never been a better time. As HTML 5 marches closer and closer to reality the applications we dream of developing just get that much closer to reality. And even if you're the guy looking to fund the next generation of web applications that are going to change the world make sure your team embraces the web standard HTML 5 and sets you up for the future.