Out of all the websites whose markup language is identified, 74.4% of them all relies on HTML 5. All of your favorite sites, including Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, and Youtube, depend on HMTL 5 for effectually catering content to you. Chances are that if you’re reading this article, you must already know, although a little, about HTML 5.
Also stylized as HTML5, HTML 5 is the 5th major version of the HTML standard. Web developers around the world prefer the de-facto markup language for structuring as well as presenting content over the Internet. As of now, there are two standardized versions of the programming language, HTML 5.2 Recommendation, and HTML Living Standard.
For those thinking about switching to HTML 5 or starting afresh web development with it, first things to know are the reasons why to use it. But before that, here are some important characteristics of the HTML 5:
- Adds new audio, canvas, and video elements for natively including and handling graphical and multimedia content
- APIs and DOM (Document Object Model) are now fundamental parts of the HTML 5 specification
- Better defines the processing for any invalid documents
- Brings new page structure elements, like article, header, and nav, for enriching the semantic content of documents
- Extends, improves and rationalizes the markup available for documents
- Includes features designed with low-powered devices in mind
- Introduces markup and APIs for complex web applications
- Ropes in new attributes in addition to removal, change, redefinition, and standardization of several attributes
- Several new syntactic features are included
- Supports SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) content and MathML for mathematical formulas
To further solidify HTML 5’s repute, it is a leading candidate for cross-platform mobile applications. This is because the latest iteration of the markup language is designed with a preference for low-powered devices, such as smartphones.
So, ready for knowing some of the most opportune reasons to switch to HTML 5? Here’s the rundown:
6. <! DOCTYPE html>
In addition to boasting an easier implementation, HTML 5 works easily in tandem with the CSS3. The DOCTYPE declaration for HTML 5 is too simplistic. You need to only enter two magic words, <! DOCTYPE html>. In addition to being simple, it works across all browsers, even in the dreaded IE6.
With it, you no longer need to cut and paste some long unreadable lines of code. Neither do you require to fill in dirty head tags laced with a multitude of doctype attributes. Simply enter <! DOCTYPE html> and voila!
5. Built-in Audio and Video Support
Before the advent of HTML 5, web developers relied on 3rd-party plugins for rendering videos and audios in web pages. They need to add the embed and object tags in addition to assigning a number of parameters in order to make the video, or audio, up and running. Not anymore with the HTML 5. Audios and videos can be made easily accessible with the all-new audio and video tags now. In addition to native audio and video support, HTML 5 supports smooth media streaming across a diverse range of devices. Thanks to the newly-introduced audio and video tags, media can be treated simply as images. The only parameters that you need to specify along with the single line tag are height, width, and autoplay.
4. Geolocation Support
Thanks to geolocation, it’s achievable to effortlessly pinpoint the location we are right now on the huge planet of ours and share it with other people. With HTML 5, geolocating a client device is easy-peesy. This is made possible by the set of APIs that effectually allow a client-side device to retrieve geographic positioning information using JavaScript, which is available to the device’s HTML 5-compatible browser.
Prior, geolocation was made possible using a long, arduous method starting with the identification of the IP address. This was followed by then identifying the wireless network connection, cell tower of the phone and finally the longitude and latitude. Not so convenient, say!
3. Mobile-Ready
With 74% of the Americans taking smartphones to the bathroom and 4 out of 5 people using the same for shopping, any technology to succeed in the present-day scenario needs to be mobile-friendly. As such, HTML 5 is ready for it with features, such as the Responsive Design, that simplify mobile apps and mobile sites development.
Some of the most important mobile-oriented features supported by HTML 5 includes:
1. Full-Screen Browsing – These iOS-specific values allow Apple devices to display content in the full-screen mode
2. Home Screen Icons – Meant to be used for adding favorites to the home screen of mobile devices
3. Viewport – Allows defining viewport widths as well as zoom settings
2. SEO-Friendly
Like the digital world, SEO is always transforming. It keeps on getting better and better, all in order to separate most meaningful information from the vast heaps of data settled over the Internet. To gain as well as retain a desirable search engine ranking, any website needs to abide by all SEO conventions as well as be equipped with all necessary SEO modules.
HTML 5 flaunts various attributes and modules that smooth the operations of web crawlers. As a result, the content is searched easily and the website gets indexed thoroughly and quickly. Hence, search engine rankings improve. In order to let digital marketing professionals churn out the most from organic search traffic, a plethora of attributes, semantics, media and structural elements are available in the HTML 5.
1. Smarter, Local Storage
HTML 5 comes with the local storage feature, and not just any storage but one that’s intelligent. As it is something like a client-side database, you need not worry about the deletion of cookies. The ability to store data in a user’s browser facilitates easy creation of app features, such as the ability to load previous application state and caching of data.
Additionally, the feature allows storage across multiple windows and has a greater level of security and performance. The data will continue to exist even after the browser is closed.
So you see, using HTML 5 adds a whole lot of conveniences and vantages to your programming arsenal. Perhaps the biggest reason of start using HTML 5 is that it is the present as well as the future of web development.
Convinced about using HTML 5? Start learning right now.
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