As many of of you may or may not have heard, HTML5 is a game changer.
Although the technology is still technically in the development phase, many companies are already converting their old sites into HTML5. For example, in a recent interview with the New York City based video sharing giant, Vimeo, a representative stated that the company is already upgrading to HTML5 so that users will no longer be dependent on 3rd party video software such as Adobe’s Flash Player. Here, Vimeo is referring to HTML5’s new video tag which makes 3rd party video players mostly obsolete. This means that people using the site are not forced through an abrasive download process which will like reduce bounce rates. In addition to the video tag, HTML5 offers several other great new features such as:
- The <canvas> element for 2D drawing
- The <audio> element for media playback
- Support for local storage
- New content-specific elements, like <article>, <footer>, <header>, <nav>, <section>
- New form controls, like calendar, date, time, email, url, search
Although the official release of HTML5 may be a year or two away, the reality of this new technology is here today. A tip for web developers – USE HTML5!