Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) 5 is
attracting increasing attention as the standard technology for the
next-generation web. Naturally, it will have massive impact on personal
computers (PC), smartphones and mobile phones, and the effects will
spread out to include other home electronics as well.
The industry is getting excited about standards for the World Wide Web. Google Inc of the US, which provides online search and other services, plans to adopt HTML 5 as a fundamental technology, and at the Google I/O developers conference held in the US in May 2009 the firm called strongly for participants to adopt the new standard.
HTML 5 is the next-generation web standard technology now being standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Until now, web technology has focused on presenting text content, but in HTML 5 the emphasis is shifting significantly to providing an application program execution environment.
The web browsers
that will display content coded in HTML 5 are already moving to comply
with the standard even though it hasn't been completed yet. Apple Inc
of the US has provided compliance for a number of HTML 5 points in its
Safari 4.0 web browser for PCs. Firefox, with the second-largest share
of the PC market, Opera Software of Norway and other browsers are also
beginning to provide support. Even Google has incorporated a variety of
HTML 5 functions in its Chrome 2.0 browser (Fig 1).
HTML 5 compliance is likely to be available in the Apple iPhone and other smartphones before it is ready in the PC.
Apple's iPhone OS 3.0, disclosed in June, complies with HTML 5. In the same month Palm Inc of the US released the Palm Pre smartphone utilizing HTML 5 functions. And we can be certain that the Android platform provided by Google for smartphone designs will provide HTML 5 compliance sooner or later.
One key feature of HTML 5 is that it provides a variety of functions to facilitate the development of application software. Improvements include functions for local data storage, enhanced drag-and-drop operability and detailed screen draw capability. It will make possible web-based applications significantly more sophisticated than those possible today.
Web applications based on the Asynchronous JavaScript + eXtended Markup Language (XML), or Ajax, have already been developed. The framework assumes network connection, however, and adequate processing cannot be ensured when isolated from it. New HTML 5 functions, however, will make it possible to build applications that are server-independent: in other words, the browser itself becomes the application platform; applications can be developed without worrying about microprocessor, operating system (OS) or browser differences.
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