| Roadmap of HTML5 |
 According to Google trends, HTML5 is among the hottest technology subjects today and in the extraordinarily near future, it's going to be the language of choice for web applications, displacing Flash. The most publicized because of the push to build web apps in HTML5 is that Flash is not authorized on the iPhone and the iPad, but the explanations go deeper and more technical than that. The reality is, Flash was excessively distinguished in the early 2000s thanks to the absence of browser creativity.The browser wars of the previous century saw Internet Explorer and Netscape battle it out with a variety of new features, and when the dust settled, only Net Explorer was left standing, and it no longer had competition. Rather than continuing with its discoveries, Microsoft found itself in the position of plugging holes and doing bug fixes to the speedily implemented features that were causing security failings with the OS. Blend the absence of browser invention with the incontrovertible fact that video technology was also not keeping in step with the web. In the later 1990s, web video was controlled by Quicktime, Windows Media, and Real Networks. Initially, just the indisputable fact that video could play over the web was adequate, and these 3 firms instantly started attempts at monetization. These early attempts were heavy handed to put it mildly. Users had no wish to go up to Quicktime Pro, they resented Real Networks harassing them in the task bar, and Microsoft wasn't enthusiastic about their videos playing in other browsers. On top of the rest, they did not work well, delivering meager frame refresh rates, dropped frames, and stuttering, out of sync audio. And developers failed to like these extensions taking over their page and using nag-ware on their audience. Flash video modified that. The previous versions could only handle short clips, but in 2004 and the releasing of Flash MX, the FLV video file schema was introduced, with an exciting and new codec by Sorenson Spark that made the videos not only look great, but made them miniscule. Flash video worked smoothly over the web, particularly over the broadband connections that were getting more common. Its killer app however was the launch of YouTube in 2005. Flash video had become the general standard. The W3C wasn't helping either. They'd fundamentally announced HTML dead as they were targeting their efforts on XHMTL 2.0 (which wasn't officially released and nobody technically used it). Not liking that HTML wasn't developing and the exclusive Flash technology was taking over the web, Apple, Mozilla and Opera formed the Web Hypertext Application Technology Work Group (WHATWG) to form the HTML5 suggestion with one or two goals under consideration: *Return the web to its open roots The way standards were implemented also changed. Rather than waiting years for something that should be agreed on in the standards bodies, the browsers implemented the technology first, and if they worked and were popular they were then submitted for standardizing. Microsoft dragged its feet for next few years, giving excuses the spec was too complicated, but eventually have got with the programme and with the IE9 preview release, welcomed not only HTML5, but SVG, and H264 video. |