So, you have heard of it, but what is it.

HTML5 is the next version of HTML, the language of the Internet. About 10 years ago, the internet browsers we were using had to do little more than show text. Unless you live under a rock you know that that is no longer the case. Browsers now have to contend with more graphics, video, audio and many other types of content. Sure we have plugins for Flash and other things to handle those great You Tube videos, but why not make the browser handle it natively, without plugins. When HTML5 finally becomes the De Facto standard of the web, like its predecessors, the browser will understand how to handle that information natively.

The Rub however is that none of the browsers currently out there support HTML5 yet, because it hasn’t been ratified yet. Unfortunatly, IE is still the largest player in the browser world. Despite the vast power of Firefox, and the speed of Google Chrome, IE still has the biggest percentage of market share. So it appears that we are again, waiting on Microsoft.

One of the biggest cheerleaders for HTML5 is Google. See HTML5 will help them with Gmail, Google Docs, Wave and even help their core search business. Google, is not able to see inside certain parts of flash, which is not good for sites that use Flash. While it’s pretty, it’s not the most SEO friendly. Google’s secret weapon in the fight to get HTML5 out there is You Tube. You Tube is so vastly used for video that its amazing. It seems everyone is using it. You Tube has now launched an HTML5 Version of the site. No browser plugins (Flash) are required to see the videos on the site. This is good news because flash is also known to be unsecure in some respects. This is also good news for Mac users, as Flash is one of the main causes of failure for the Mac.

This is great move on You Tube’s part, but I don’t think that Google should just switch to it right away, you must have some form of choice on the part of the user. I do however think this is a step in the right direction.

What do you think? Let me know in the Comments section!

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