HTML5: The Future is Now
What is HTML5?
HTML is how web developers structure the content on web pages, and increasingly, use its structure to manipulate the style of your page, how your page displays images and video, and how interactive components, such as JavaScript, act with the user and content. HTML5 is the newest iteration of the HTML markup language with particular attention to multimedia. Currently, each browser interacts with these components differently, and that can make for a long, complicated HTML file. HTML5 aims to solve this bloating (along with other issues), creating both cleaner markup and more efficient sites.
Why is it making waves?
HTML4, developed in 1997, is the current standard for web development. Its limited functionality means that to display things like Flash or Java, users must have a plugin enabled and updated to view certain components on your site such as video or multimedia files. This process consumes more memory and energy on users' machines and relies on users to update plugins. HTML5 works to fix some of these problems. So what makes HTML5 so interesting?
- HTML5 aims to limit use of external plugins
- HTML5 creates a uniform experience across devices
- HTML5 has location support, and with Google's hyper-local search algorithm changes, this could mean better visibility to users in your area!
Ok, so why do we care about this when building websites? I am so glad you asked!
Websites that adhere closely to markup standards generally are more efficient. This improved functionality means not only a smoother experience for your user, but better SEO results as well! A HTML5 site will load faster, use less of your user's machine resources, reduce reliance on external plugins, and work across browsers and devices. This will be more evident as HTML5 is adopted. We already see large web companies (such as YouTube) using HTML5 for default video format over Flash. Of the top 1 million sites accessed on the web, over 300,000 utilize HTML5. While adoption of HTML5 across the web will take some time, the development team at REQ is excited about the advantages this new technology can bring to our clients.
Another perk: HTML5 makes our work more enjoyable. HTML5 allows us to create neat, readable code on the back end of clients' sites - always a plus when reading line after line of HTML markup! It also means we don't have to worry as much about whether or not users have updated their Flash, Java, or other plugin to get the full experience of our clients' sites. HTML5 allows us to write our markup with a bunch of new tags to help SEO efforts for our clients. Benefits such as nofollow tags for links, alternative text for images, the ability to more accurately describe the type of links on a site, and the improved speeds due to less plugin reliance allow us to make the most efficient, accessible, and clean sites on the web. The future is now at REQ!
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